


I eleniël orco - The star daugher of the orc

by Elenyafinwe



Series: Earenis [4]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Action/Adventure, Eventual Romance, F/M, Gen, POV Multiple, Post-Lord of the Rings, Post-War of the Ring, Third Age, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Love, unrequitet pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 38
Words: 32,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25022968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenyafinwe/pseuds/Elenyafinwe
Summary: Earenis is a half-blood, half orc, half elven, which makes her an outcast in society. She struggles with mercenary missions through her life. But by a rather curious coincidence her life crosses that of the mighty of Middle-earth. Those same people are startled by the fact that after Sauron's fall a new danger seems to threaten them. A servant of the Dark Lord rises in the north to continue the work of his master. And rumor has it that he is as half-blood as Earenis. (part 1 of 3)
Relationships: Aragorn | Estel & Elrond Peredhel, Aragorn | Estel & Gimli (Son of Glóin) & Legolas Greenleaf, Gimli (Son of Glóin) & Legolas Greenleaf, Original Character/?
Series: Earenis [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/316256
Kudos: 8





	1. Prologue: Destinies

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [I eleniël orco - Die Sternentochter des Orks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4719752) by [Elenyafinwe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenyafinwe/pseuds/Elenyafinwe). 



There were many fates in Middle-earth. Many an aeon had passed since the music of the Ainur, the Ainulindale, countless lives began and have since passed in the streams of time. Some of them had been told in the great stories of their time, the Quenta Silmarillion, the Akallabêth and the Red Book of the Westmark, but many of these fates remained hidden and lost in the shadows of history.

That of the Half-elf Earenis was such a fate. She was not one of the great personalities, not at all. She was merely an orphan who lived a harsh and rough life in the wilderness of the north. Her mother had been a Noldo, one of the ancient and wise people of the craftsmen and gem cutters among the eldar, and from her she had received her name, Lady of the Sea. Once her mother had belonged to the people of Gildor Inglorion, and had wandered the wilderness of the north with the prince of the previous Nargothrond, until this one, terrible day came.

The wandering elves had been attacked, and although an elven lord of old could be a terrible foe, the orcs had managed to do unspeakable things to her mother.

Her father was an orc, and although he had lost his head for it, he had been able to bring this bad seed to life.

Even though Earenis was far from being a child of love, her mother had decided to carry her out. It was her damnation. She had been allowed to carry her child to term in the shelter of Rivendell, but then she was chased away in disgrace. She had given a wretched life to a freak.

Earenis' mother had suffered severe mental damage and she had not been able to show her daughter any love all her life. She had fed her, yes, but probably more and more with the thought that her daughter should survive and nothing more. And Earenis did.

She had to watch her mother fade away more and more over the years like a wilted flower. And one day, when Earenis was old enough to stand on her own two feet, she lay down and never woke up.

Earenis had packed her things that day and left the small hut she had lived in with her mother in the Trollshaws. She had never returned there again. Since then, she had travelled the country as an adventurer and earned her money with all kinds of work. It was a hard life, of course, but she had never known it any other way.

And how could she have known that one day she of all people should determine the fate of Middle-Earth?

Because great events were about to happen. The Eing was found and the Great Years came and went. Wars were fought, and from the ashes of the old world a new one was born. A better one? Perhaps.

Sauron may have been destroyed, but not all his traces had been erased. For the Dark Lord had plans that had never come to fruition. Ghastly experiments had been conducted in the darkest chambers of his fortress, experiments that aimed at the foulest things. For Morgoth was still trapped in the void beyond the circles of this world, and with him numerous powerful spirits whose servants Sauron wished only too gladly to see at his side.

Not all of Sauron's works had been destroyed when he fell - or his creatures. Some had escaped. And for one, the time had come...


	2. The assaulted farmers

She didn't exactly make the best impression, she was aware of how she stood there with her gray-skinned, haggard face, her dull silver hair and her dark, dirty armor. Not to mention the bastard sword at her side or even her sinister expression.

The worst of it was probably the wolfhound at her side. Mistaroa sie had namend the huge male with the messy grey fur, who never left her side.

Admittedly, the people before her looked no less torn. It was a bunch of farmers who had hired a mercenary to solve their problem, and a mercenary they had gotten. Just a female one. They didn't look too happy about it.

Earenis looked at the dirty faces in front of her. The elders of the village had gathered around her and discussed their task with her now, yet mistrust seemed to be in their eyes. She was someone who earned money from the misery of others, and that was reprehensible. Of course. But it was better to help these people for money than to assassinate them for money, she said to herself. Very few of her clients thought the same.

"So you have a little troll problem," she said and leaned forward.

An old man with a white beard and a wrinkled face, reminiscent of an old potato, snorted disparagingly. "Small," he pushed out. "Don't get smart, girl!"

She squinted her dark eyes. "I strongly suspect that I am older than you." The fact that she was an Elf could not be ignored, though it was also obvious what was different about her. Very few dared to ask. " Now what is it?"

"What is it," the old man replied. "Trolls came down from the heights, it is said. They destroyed two of the more remote farms, plundered what they could and then left." He pointed to two other men who didn't look very friendly. "Their farms were destroyed. And since then, the trolls have come in regular intervals and robbed us of our livestock and crops."

"How much?" she asked unimpressed. The usual blather...

"How much money will you get for it?" the old man asked angrily.

"Yes and no. How many trolls?" she corrected, annoyed.

"Two, as far as we could observe," said the old man. "They come from the north. Where the stone trolls are. And ..."

"So what?"

"Well, if you wanna haggle... They took Beren's girl here, they took the girl too. If you bring her back safe, you'll get a bonus."

Earenis sighed. Great, now a rescue operation. "How much do I get?"

Beren seemed to be taking too long with all this talk. He jumped up. "Everything we have, just bring my girl back! You hear me?!"

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her hard. Quickly, she grabbed his hands and pushed him away.

"Yes, yes! It's all right, I understand!" she exclaimed.

Mistaroa rose and growled at the man; he was a perfectly trained guard dog who would go for his master at anyone's throat. Quickly she made a sound to let him know that everything was fine. The Wolfhound sat down beside her again. Beren looked at the animal suspiciously and seemed not to trust peace.

"Is all we can spare enough?" asked the village elder.

"I can't ask for more," Earenis clarified. "I can only hope that it is a reasonable price. Trolls are not easy opponents."

"Yes, we are aware of that, and also what we ask of you, girl."

He still called her that. Earenis got upset and pulled her eyes together. "Let us hope..."

Since this said it all, she stood up and left without comment. Mistaroa rose lazily and trotted after her. The main thing was that she got the money in the end and was not ripped off again.

With an inner shudder she stepped out of the hut where the deal was made, into the cold, wet rain. Ah, how she loved it... With a dark face, her cape tightly wrapped around her, she stomped towards her task.

It was the 14th quelle of the year 3020 of the Third Age somewhere in the Northern Kingdom, though in such remote places as this there was still no sign of a new king in the south. And that meant that things were still as harsh here as they were two years ago. Bandits, orcish units and the occasional troll sighting every few years were therefore quite common.

But that was the way Earenis' life was. Not that she ever had a choice...


	3. Troll sightings

Earenis stomped ahead with the usual bad-tempered expression. She was glad that her orcish heritage sometimes didn't really come to bear strongly, because otherwise she would not only be soaked to the bones but also freezing miserably. So the cold in her armour was still bearable. Mistaroa, on the other hand, left his tail hanging and trotted along beside her; he hated such inclemencies, unusual for an animal that did not grow up as a pet. Sometimes he had a mind of his own.

Hunting trolls. She didn't like the idea, but she had to take the job. Money was running out and her equipment needed urgent attention. If she looked at the patches and cracks in her cloak and the dents and no longer completely problem-free hinges of her armor, it was probably more than urgent.

The paths were completely drenched by the continuous rain of the last days, meanwhile even small lakes had formed, which made the progress even more difficult. Earenis meandered past them, even if she could only leave the nameless settlement by detours. She hoped that things would get better once she had reached the nearby forest.

In a touch of malice, she wondered who would want to settle out here. There was nothing here but wilderness and trouble. The soil was not too fertile and the next bigger settlement was many days march from here. And nobody went to Rivendell anyway, although that would probably be closer.

Elves... She saw it in the eyes of the men she were bargaining with. They feared her, not because she was different from other elves, but simply because she was an elf. She could not blame them (her own people, the Noldor, were not always welcome among her kind), but in a way she was amused. If she had made eerie noises and looked even more sinister, she could have demanded anything from the men. But no, she was not a robber, she did not rob anyone of their last shirt. She had that much decency after all.

In the woods it only got better imperceptibly. Now she was no longer constantly watered with rainwater, but with small interruptions in between when the foliage was particularly dense. In addition, the forest floor was covered with autumn leaves that had become treacherously slippery due to the rain. She had to be careful not to fall.

There were clearly days she wanted to forget as quickly as possible. This was one of them.

North, the villagers had said. By the old stone tolls. For a short time Earenis thought about whether she would find some of the troll treasure from the story there, but rejected the thought again. After Bilbo's story had gained some notoriety, other scavengers had already come up with this idea for sure.

Considering her destination, Earenis prepared herself for several more hours of uncomfortable walking. Eyes closed and through, all complaining didn't help anyway. Instead, she meditated while walking, a special breathing technique she had thought up to better prepare herself for upcoming missions. She found her inner peace and an almost familiar closeness to the nature around her.

Mistaroa's thoughts flowed through her, a telepathic connection that was completely normal for her, although she knew that this was far from normal in everyone's eyes. Her dog was in a bad mood, she felt that, but she told him that they had to go through it now. Mistaroa did not seem to be satisfied.

Despite the adversities, the goal was soon reached. Although the rain hadn't stopped for days, she smelled the hoard surprisingly before she even saw it. She didn't want to know what it must smell like here if it hadn't rained. Almost the rain got a good side this way.

She told Mistaroa to be careful and now she herself crept thoughtfully through the undergrowth. Soon the goal was reached: a small clearing where three stone trolls stood and behind them, a little hidden, a cave from which a terrible stench blew over to her.


	4. Fights

Two trolls sat in front of the cave around a fire shielded from the rain. Apparently they used the thick cloud cover to get outside now as well. They seemed to feel safe, especially since the evening was approaching anyway.

Earenis' mouth was watering when she saw what the two Trolls were cooking on skewers over the fire: mutton. She was reminded of her own hunger and Mistaroa seemed to drip as well. Perhaps there was something left over for her after the battle, when she had killed the trolls.

So, two trolls, big, strong guys that towered over her by several heads. But they were hulking and slow, she was fast and agile. Not to mention Mistaroa...

Difficult, she found, challenging, but by no means impossible. She loosened her bastard sword in its sheath and came out of her hiding place with a confident pose. The Trolls paused in surprise and looked at her with big, stupid eyes. They were probably not the brightest. Mistaroa stepped beside them, his fur was bristled, he bared his teeth.

One of the Trolls grunted a little and pushed his companion. Then he pointed to the petite elf. He grunted a little more, put his roast mutton aside and took a club.

Earenis smiled provocatively, she would not let herself be crushed into jelly so easily.

The two Trolls stomped towards her. Earenis ordered her Wolfhound to face one of the two Trolls and distract him from her, for not even she could take on two Trolls at once. She drew her sharp sword, feathered her knees and then stormed towards the other troll.

He looked at her with astonishment from little pig eyes; apparently he hadn't expected such boldness from such a small creature. His companion did not fare any better. Yapping loudly and gnashing his teeth, Mistaroa threw himself on him. Only in the last moment the Troll kicked after the grey flash, but the dog was experienced in fights against overpowering opponents and evaded quickly. Already in the next moment he had bitten into the thick, leathery skin on the troll's arm and hung there like a tick. The troll roared up and shook his arm wildly, but Mistaroa did not let go.

Meanwhile Eareni's opponent struck out with his club and tried to beat the elf with it. But she had already seen this attack coming. At the last moment she threw herself to the ground and slipped under the club and between the troll's legs. In the same movement she swung her sword and struck at one of the legs of the creature. The beast howled; the sword had left a deep, bleeding cut.

Quickly Earenis jumped back onto her legs and continued to strike the troll. A blow to the back made the troll spin around. His club described a wide arc. Considering that Trolls weren't exactly brainiacs, the club didn't hit the target, but hit the second Troll, still struggling with Mistaroa, in the skull. The affected troll staggered back dazed and stumbled into the fire. Again a bloodcurdling and painful roar echoed through the forest. Sparks rose and the Troll carried away bad burns on his feet. Angrily he nagged, drool flew out of his mouth.

Spurred on by the pain and despite the fact that Mistaroa was still biting his arm, he grabbed a burning log and rushed at his mate with the force of a rock slide.

Oh, great. First their food had been ruined and now the two Trolls were wedging each other as well. Earenis watched that she got out of the line of fire and stopped Mistaroa as well to be careful.

In blind rage, the Trolls were now beating each other, one with his club, the other with the log. Sparks flew up when the log found its target in the troll's face. It smelled like burnt flesh.

The victim howled up in pain, sank to the ground and held his badly burnt face. This was their opportunity. Immediately, Earenis and Mistaroa stormed forward again. With a frightening growl, the Wolfhound approached the second troll with the log and jumped right into his face. He bit into the ugly face, scratched and bit until the troll fell over with a badly battered face. Then Mistaroa went for his throat.

The other troll was taken by Earenis. First, she cut the back of his knees with a powerful stroke of her sword. Then she quickly climbed up his broad back. The troll bucked and fought back, but the elf was clever enough to be able to stay on him nevertheless. She reached out with her sword and struck. With a crunch, the troll's neck gave way.

Suddenly peace returned to the clearing.


	5. Discoveries or Questlog completed

Still breathing a little heavy but satisfied, Earenis looked at her work. Two dead Trolls, one with his head half severed, the other with his throat literally torn out. Someone should copy her first! Panting and with bloody fur, Mistaroa trotted to her and wanted to get his reward.

"Well done!" Earenis praised her faithful companion and scratched him behind the ears. He pressed himself contentedly growling against her legs.

But there was still something to do. The food was gone after the Troll's fool had trampled around in it, but the farmer's girl still had to be found.

Since she couldn't see the child at first glance, her next thought was of the cave. She was horrified to enter this stinking hole, but she probably had no choice. Eyes closed and through... She took several deep breaths and faced the inevitable.

A wave of stench, a veritable wall of foul smells, struck her. Earenis choked, pulled a face and held a hand in front of her nose to at least have the illusion of keeping something from the smells. Carefully she groped her way forward until her eyes got used to the darkness.

With some surprise she found, besides the usual junk of a troll cave, also numerous orcish weapons and armor that hadn't set too much dust yet. She frowned, because especially the crowd seemed very unusual to her.

"Hello?", she heard a soft little voice from a dark corner of the cave. "Who is this?"

She had probably found the target of her extra assignment. She smiled in satisfaction. And apparently there would be a bonus. Determined, she headed for a cage with a human girl behind its rusty bars. The child looked at her with big, fear-dilated eyes. It was dirty, its clothes were torn and in general it looked skinny. But apart from that nothing else seemed to be missing.

"Who are you?" she asked. "You are not a troll." Then she saw her ears. "Are you an elf?" Now her eyes grew wide in wonder.

For simplicity's sake, Earenis affirmed this as she set about finding a way to open the lock. Since it looked quite rusty and didn't look too stable in any other way, she decided to use the brute variant and hit the lock with her sword. It gave way very soon. Quickly the girl came out, obviously happy to be free again. Earenis could not blame her.

"Will you take me to Papa now?", the girl asked hopefully.

"Yes..."

"You're not very talkative."

"My mission was to kill the two trolls and find you. I did that. Finished."

Intimidated, the girl remained silent. Earenis knew she wasn't the most pleasant person to be around, but she didn't care.

So after these relations between them had been settled quite pragmatically, they hurried to get out of this stinking hole. The girl made big eyes again when she saw the dead trolls, but said nothing about it. Instead, she had other questions.

"Is this your dog?"

"Yes."

"He has bloody fur."

"He has killed a troll."

"What's his name?

"Mistaroa.

"What does it mean?

"Greyhound."

"And what's your name?"

"Earenis."

"And what does that mean?"

"Daughter of the sea."

"A beautiful name, I like it!"

"Hmm...

After this disgruntled grumbling, the girl at least kept her mouth shut. Silently, they set off back, but this time it took much longer, considering the continuing rain, the dawn and the girl's condition. Earenis suggested that they should simply spend the night in the forest, but that seemed to scare the child quite a bit. Horrified, she shook her head violently. Probably she feared that ghosts could rob her again, or something similar. So they marched on. At some point at least the rain stopped, even if the cloud cover still didn't break. The girl was cold, especially since she kept slipping and soon she was covered with mud all over her body, which didn't make her situation any better.

Earenis endured all these adversities with stoic composure.

At some point they reached the end of the forest, even if it happened quite suddenly, because meanwhile they could hardly see their hand in front of their eyes. With that the village was not far away. They accelerated their steps, Earenis, because she wanted to get back to the dry land, and her little companion, because she wanted to go back to her father.

Apparently no one expected them at this late hour, because when they entered the community house in the center of the village, the surprise was great, but the joy was all the greater. When Beren saw his daughter, he jumped up with a joyful scream, ran towards her, locked her in his arms and whirled her around. The girl laughed no less happily. That she still stank terribly of troll even after the rain did not interest anyone.

The village elder slowly stumbled to Earenis on his stick. He held a little gold sack in his hand. That looked just like her taste.

"As promised," he said, and pressed the sack into her hand. "All that we can give... Hopefully enough. Since you have returned the girl safe and sound, you will receive the promised bonus. You can stay here with us for the next few days and rest. If you want to go on, we'll leave you some provisions. You don't seem to have much of those left."

Earenis smiled contentedly, "Thank you for that," she said; now and then she could be polite after all. "That is an offer I am only too glad to accept." Too seldom she had a roof over her head when she slept.

Yet she could not get the discovery in the cave out of her mind. She decided to pursue it at times.


	6. Meetings among friends

Rivendell, which was generally known, was a place of peace and rest. What was less well known was that things were often quite chaotic here, which was mostly due to the master of the house. Nevertheless Legolas liked to visit this place all too much. He spurred his horse when Elrond's house became visible in the valley in the distance. Just get out of this filthy weather...

"At last," Gimli growled behind him. "If this rain keeps up, I'll grow gills."

"It's been a long time since we had a rainy autumn like this," Legolas agreed. "In Ithiliën, we could do with a little of that. Aragorn will also be glad to know my gardens in Minas Tirith are well watered. But here in the North..." He shuddered. "No, clearly we don't need that."

Of course, he was used to the harsher Northern climate, after all, he had grown up and spent most of his life here. But since he had moved to Ithiliën, he had become accustomed to the mild maritime climate of the south surprisingly quickly.

Their horse seemed to think the same way, because it almost accelerated its pace by itself when it smelled the warm, dry stable that was waiting for it. In no time they had reached the Last Homely House. Normally they would have been welcomed long ago, but in this weather not even Lindir sang his mocking songs. Which probably had advantages and disadvantages.

It was only when they rode into the forecourt of the citadel that a tall, armed Noldo approached them. He held the horse's reins so they could dismount.

"Welcome to Rivendell," he greeted them. "You will be assigned rooms as soon as possible. I take it there's no special occasion for this visit?"

" _Mae govannen_ , Rethtulu," Legolas replied. He knew the Noldo from his previous visits to Rivendell, for Elrond was hardly unimaganable without him. "And yes, it is."Though he simply did not feel at ease when he saw the eight-pointed star on the elf's armor. Doriath may be thousands of years behind, and yet...

Gimli still had to struggle - as usual - to get off the horse with some elegance, which attracted Legolas' attention. He helped his friend before he fell to the ground. After they had taken their luggage, Rethtulu led the horse into the stables.

"Well, I just can't help it, but I don't like that guy," Gimli murmured.

"Me neither," muttered Legolas, hurrying to get dry and warm. Gimli followed.

Actually, the two friends wanted to visit their home and their fathers. But after they had heard that Aragorn was in Rivendell with Arwen on a visit to Elrond, they had decided to take this detour and see their friend again as well.

They found what they were looking for in the fire hall. Arwen sat on a chair near one of the columns and was cared for by Elrond and Aragorn, while one of Elrond's dogs - an own breed of which he was very proud - put his big head in her lap and drooled over her dress. She did not seem happy about everything.

"I'm having a baby and I'm not dying!" she just said.

Elrond skillfully ignored her. Instead, he pressed several knitted dresses, obviously intended for infants, into her hand. "Nevertheless, everything must be taken care of!" he said admonishingly. "This is no small matter, ask your mother."

"I can't do it anymore."

"Exactly, so I'll just have to do it now."

"You're my father, not my mother!"

"Does it make any difference?"

"Yes!

Aragorn stood royally at the back, trying hard not to laugh.

It was then that the dog noticed the two newcomers. With a hum he raised his head. Then he trotted single-mindedly towards them, like a furry mountain range. Arriving at Gimli, he leaned with all his weight against the dwarf to be tickled. Foolishly, Gimli hadn't expected this attack and landed on the bottom of his trousers rather miserably and was half buried under the huge dog.

Now the Master of the house and his family also became aware of them.

"Garahû, over here!" Elrond whistled loudly once, whereupon his dog reluctantly obeyed and went to him. When he got up, however, he landed an accurate and quite strong kick in Gimli's stomach area. The dwarf groaned tortured.

Legolas could not help it, he had to laugh. He knew Elrond's dogs well enough, after all he had been to Rivendell many times before, and he suspected, perhaps not without reason, that Elrond had deliberately bred their cuddles to attract Celebrían and had not been able to breed it out of them since then. Elrond of course claimed stiffly and firmly that his animals were excellent guard dogs...

Still laughing, Legolas helped his friend back on his feet. He growled something incomprehensible into his beard and brushed the dog hairs off his clothes. Meanwhile Aragorn came to them.

"Good to see you again," he said. "To what do we owe the honor?"

"Visiting friends, what else, boy?" replied Gimli.


	7. Search for tracks

A few days later Earenis packed her things and set off again. Although the villagers were polite to her, and Beren in particular had not been able to get out of their expressions of gratitude, she had felt that she was not too welcome here. She preferred not to overstay this hospitality.  
So she stood in front of the troll cave again. The carcasses of the killed trolls were still lying where they had died, but in the meantime they showed clear bite marks. Of course, the animals of the forest quickly realised that there was prey to be found here. Apparently, nothing had changed in the cave itself.  
She began to examine the finds more closely. Mistaroa also seemed eager to help her and stuck his nose death-defyingly into all the rubbish. By now the stench had improved a bit, but it was still abnormal.  
"What do you think, Mistaroa?" she asked her male dog. "What's the meaning of this?"  
Mistaroa hummed and scratched the ground. Earenis jumped to his side to see what he had found, but it was only a mouse hole. She gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder.  
"Look for something real and not a bite to eat in between," she reprimanded him. Mistaroa didn't seem enthusiastic, but followed suit.  
Earenis took a closer look at the design of the orcish weapons and armour. As she had hoped, she recognized a few things. The forgings showed clear signs of use, some even still had dried blood on them. The blacksmithing itself was crude and looked more bad than cobbled together. It looked a lot like the orc tribes of the Misty Mountains. You could do something with that.  
"Mistaroa," she exclaimed.  
The big male dog lifted his head and put it crooked.  
"Search!" She held out a glove to him. Mistaroa jumped up to her and sniffed at the presented object. Then he pressed his nose to the ground and continued sniffing. Earenis followed him out of the cave while he continued to sniff the forest floor. She wasn't sure if her dog could find a scent at all after the rain of the last days and weeks, but an attempt was essential.  
Little by little, Mistaroa worked his way into the forest. Again and again Earenis held the glove out to him so he could pick up the scent again, then he searched further. The progress was faltering. Obviously he found a scent every now and then, but lost it again very soon.  
In the evening they hadn't got very far, but at least they had made progress. Their tracks seemed to go north, if Earenis had correctly assessed the path they had taken from the Troll Cave to here.  
As it was now getting dusky, she decided to interrupt the search for the day and set up camp. Only the next day did she want to continue.  
And so it went on for the next few days. While Mistaroa sniffed their way, his mistress also kept her eyes open to see if she discovered anything. Soon they had left the Troll Heights and faced the barren expanses of Rhudaur again. Little by little, Mistaroa led them further and further into the mountains and towards the Ettenmoors in the north. Even in those days, this was still an evil land, the Witch-king of old had not yet been forgotten. Earenis suspected no good.  
And it would be confirmed.  
They had been wandering through Rhudaur for several days, when suddenly Mistaroa struck. He barked loudly and ran off. She whistled, whereupon her dog became silent and stopped. He turned to his mistress and wagged his tail excitedly.  
Earenis followed him in a hurry, looking around to see what the Wolfhound might have been scenting. Nearby, some barely overgrown rock walls rose up. Mistaroa purposefully headed for them, turning around again and again to make sure Earenis was still following him.  
When she reached the cliffs, she had soon found the cause of her dog's excited behaviour. The ground here seemed to have been trodden on many times in the near past, and she could make out some footprints in the earth. She also found some gnawed bones, and when she found the cave and smelled it, the case was clear: Orcs.


	8. Library stocks

As Rethtulu had told them, they had been given rooms and a warm bath for each of them to warm up again. Now that they were restored and presentable, Legolas had decided to visit the library again. Erestor had waved him through without hesitation when he saw him coming; Legolas was a frequent guest in Elrond's library. Gimli, however, was strictly mustered before he was admitted with a grumpy growl.

Now the _laegel_ had settled down at one of the tables and built his little book fortress around it. He had just immersed himself in a work about various plants and their effects in medicine. He was honestly astonished that this work was not written by Elrond himself; most of the books on medicine here were.

Gimli walked down the shelves with his arms crossed behind his back and inspected the works. Occasionally he pulled out one of the volumes and leafed through it with more or less interest, but soon put most of them back. He quietly whistled a song in front of him, which earned him occasional angry looks from Erestor, who sat behind his desk near the library entrance and wrote in his catalogue.

The dwarf was obviously bored.

He was particularly struck by one volume. The book was bound in brown leather, golden letters and ornaments were embossed into the binding.

"Life and Work of the High King Gil-galad," he read. He opened the book. "By Elrond Peredhel," it said.

"Look, Legolas!" he shouted to his friend and was furiously hissed at by Erestor. He ignored him. Legolas dug a loophole through his paper fortress and peered at Gimli.

"Yes?"

"Look, a biography of Gil-galad, even I have heard of him," Gimli proudly explained.

Legolas' interest was limited. "There are many," he said dryly, returning to his book.

"Lord Elrond wrote it."

Now Legolas was beginning to take notice. He got up and went to his friend. "Let's have a look."

Gimli handed him the book.

" _Gil-galad was mad, no doubt_ ," Legolas read. " _Of course, this can be seen in a positive light. This Elf had some very strange ideas and impulses now and then. One of his craziest ideas was, of course, to appoint me as his herald and send me into the open field battle for Eregion. I, who had no experience in leading armies at that time! Let alone in leading battles of any kind. When I told him exactly that, he just said that everyone has to start somewhere. Only: Usually you start small._ "

Gimli looked at his friend, who looked back at him. Then they both laughed heartily, which earned them another hiss from Erestor.

"I did not know that Master Elrond was the herald of Gil-galad," said Gimli, when they had calmed down.

"And his adviser, right hand of the King, court musician and generally best friend," Legolas added. "Here, look:

 _Gil-galad was many things, but most of them are unknown and unknowable to the general public. He is seen as the last High King, as commander of the army and a great strategist and thinker. But very few people know the Elf who is behind this. I, as his advisor, herald, and yet above all his best friend, see it as my duty, after his tragic and unfortunate death, to bring this Elf closer to the world, to which he will never be forgotten. This must not happen!_ "

Legolas closed the book and waved it. "This seems an interesting work," he said, turning to Erestor. Determined, he went to him and slipped the book to him. "I would like to borrow it," he announced.

Erestor looked at him first, then at the book and finally at Gimli. He sighed theatrically. "If you must borrow it..." Destined, he entered the rental business.

Radiant as if he was a little boy who had just received his favourite toy, Legolas pressed his new treasure to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mentioned biography actually exists - together with the later mentioned biography of Elrond.


	9. Conversation rounds

At that moment the door to the library was opened again and in came Aragorn, followed by Arwen, who had put a hand on her now clearly swollen belly. Almost intuitively Legolas was looking for Elrond, but almost to his amazement could not make him out. He knew the peculiarity of the Master of the house to mother his family a bit too much.

"Here you are," Aragorn greeted her. "I thought as much. Hello, Erestor."

"Well, Elrond sends you studying again, Estel?" Erestor replied.

Silence.

Erestor paused. "Oh..." he did when he realized his mistake. "I keep forgetting you're not anymore that little boy I remember." He turned red. "As time passes..."

Aragorn smiled. "There's nothing to worry about." He turned to his friends again. "If you've come all this way just to visit us, we might as well have a little chat, what do you say?"

"We'd love to!" Legolas and Gimli agreed.

They left the library and walked around the house for a while. Arwen had a dreamy expression as they walked through the house.

"It's good to be back," she said. "I used to visit my mother's kin in Lórien, but there are so many memories in this place." She had to smile. "The things I did with my brothers!"

"You seem to have given them some ideas," said Aragorn. "And then they put me up to it and blamed it on me..."

"Poor Glorfindel, he was always having to look after Elrond's children!" Arwen laughed like a bell.

"But how have you been, my friends?" Aragorn changed the subject. "Since we parted in Fangorn Forest, we had only written to each other."

"Well, what should have happened? Ithiliën is blooming and so is Aglarond in its own way," Legolas said. "Faramir is a good neighbor to me, it is pleasant to live with him. In my absence, I've asked him to take care of all the administrative matters of my little settlement. I have every confidence in him."

"And the wine flows, you should mention that," Gimli added teasingly.

Legolas looked at him angrily.

Gimli smiled back, but then turned back to Aragorn: "Otherwise, I suppose the same can be said for me."

"And in private?", Aragorn asked, adding with a smile and a sidelong glance at Arwen, "Have you found love yet?"

Legolas saw his opportunity to retaliate: "You don't have to ask me that, ask our dear little friend here. He has got engaged!"

Now Aragorn was truly amazed. Big he looked at Gimli, who had turned all red under his beard and looked embarrassed. "Well, well, well," said Aragorn. "I would not have thought it possible now. When did this happen?"

"A good three months ago," mumbled Gimli.

"What is she like?" Arwen wanted to know.

"Her name is Freja," said Gimli.

"And she is, of course, the most beautiful woman in the world," Legolas interjected amusedly.

Aragorn looked at him admonishingly. "You are mean, Legolas."

"You would be too, if you had lived to see the drama. It was very entertaining," the Elf smirked.

Gimli poked him in the side. "Stop that!"

"But you must admit the flowers were my idea," Legolas reminded him.

Gimli snarled at him in a huff. "How long are you going to hold it against me?"

"A long time." Legolas played the part of innocence.

"Alright, if that's the way you want it. Your idea about the flowers was a good one, but at least I managed to convince her of my merits," Gimli exclaimed. "Well, are you satisfied?"

Legolas thoughtfully played. "I think so, for the time being."

Gimli narrowed his eyes. Arwen laughed with amusement. To distract himself, Gimli turned to Aragorn.

"Things have certainly changed for you," he said, pointing at Arwen.

"You could say that," he agreed and gave Arwen a warm smile.

"When will it be?" the dwarf asked.

"In about three months." With a satisfied smile Arwen stroked his belly. " Father is already crazy."

"Well, that's what we saw earlier," Legolas interjected.

Gimli lowered his voice conspiratorially. "If I may ask, my dear lady, is he always like that?"

Arwen laughed. "Oh yes, he is," she affirmed. "On the other hand, he sometimes knows how he should behave. When it comes to family matters, he forgets all too quickly. Age..."

They had to laugh, but were interrupted by a bell.

"Oh, is that the time?" wondered Arwen. "I suppose there will be dinner with Father. Come."


	10. Dark signs

Earenis took great care. If she had really found out about a bigger orc camp here, as she suspected, then this was not to be joked with. Mistaroa noticed that his master was much more careful, and now behaved accordingly.

Slowly they crept closer. The footprints indicated that there were frequent entrances and exits, and that there must have been several people; the boot prints differed in size, shape and depth. Sometimes barefoot prints that were barely recognizable could also be made out.

The entrance, no more than a narrow, naturally formed tunnel that was only roughly widened, seemed to be unguarded. Unusual. Earenis frowned. The smell that was wafting towards her was characteristic, that was for sure. But otherwise it was treacherously quiet.

As a precaution, she drew her sword quietly. Then she slowly ventured forward. It was dark in the orc tunnel and soon the light that fell in from the entrance diminished strongly. She had to be careful where she stepped, for the ground was uneven and only roughly worked, if at all. The passage was winding, sometimes wider, sometimes narrower, which confirmed her theory that a natural space was being used here.

It was quiet for a while. For a reason she could not understand, this worried her more than the opposite was true. All her senses were tense, she looked around nervously.

When she heard noise behind her, from the direction she had come from, she knew what mistake she had made: she had been too brisk. Now she was trapped. Unsuspectingly the inhabitants came and would find a little bird that had unexpectedly fallen into their net.

Hastily Earenis looked around, but there was no hiding place to be found. To make matters worse, not even side paths led away from the main corridor. The only way left for her was to flee to the front.

She ran as fast as she dared in the dark. Both arms were stretched out to the sides, so she could feel where the passage led along, because in the meantime not even she could see anything in the darkness anymore, although both elves and especially orcs could see very well in such dark caves. But completely without light nobody would see anything.

Suddenly the walls on both sides stopped and she ran into a probably quite larger cave, as she suspected from the echo of her footsteps and her breath. Then she stumbled into the pile of armor. With a scream she fell forward. It rattled loudly and the echo made it last for a long time.

Then there was terrifying silence.

It lasted only moments, then she heard from the passage how the orcs accelerated their steps and followed the noise. Frightened, she told Mistaroa to stand by. The Wolfhound puffed to confirm. She heard him growl in the dark.

Only moments later, torches appeared in the passage and then the orcs were with her. For a short time both sides were too stunned to react, but the orcs had quickly reunited. It was a group of probably at least twenty orcs who now surrounded her and pressed her with their weapons.

Earenis jumped up and swung her sword. The orcs nagged and became more violent on their part. Mistaroa barked like mad and jumped forward, a grey vortex of shaggy fur, fangs and claws. The orcs were screaming like mad when the dog raged among them, ripping two of them apart in a few heartbeats. Only then they had also prepared themselves for this enemy.

There were still too many Orcs. Earenis and Mistaroa fought with all their skill and ability, but nothing helped. They could kill five or six orcs and wound more, but they were far outnumbered. Finally they were overpowered. Mistaroa was put on an improvised leash and his mouth was tied, and Earenis was also stripped of her sword and tied up.

The orcs laughed.

"A fine prize we have here," they shrieked. "A pretty little birdie that fluttered into our nest!"

They knew she was an elf when it crossed Earenis' mind. If she didn't find a quick way to escape, it could turn bad for her. She knew only too well from personal experience what orcs could do to captured elves.

"A strange bird," an orc now noticed. "She doesn't really look elvish."

"Never mind," the first one made clear. "Let's take her to the boss, he will see what to do with her."

They took their prisoner into their midst and led her away. By the light of the torches, she realized that she was just in a slightly larger storage cave. The orcs led her through a wide corridor system with many pokes and prods, apparently the vast majority of what she had seen so far. Little by little it seemed to her that she really had stumbled into a wasp's nest, for in front of her she heard a noise getting louder and louder.

Her suspicion was confirmed when she entered another, much larger cave, which seemed to overflow with orcs. When they entered, they immediately attracted some attention and soon it was known that the scout troop had taken a prisoner. They were brought before a particularly large and particularly ugly orc.

"Chief", said one of the orcs, "the pointed-eared one was lurking at the front entrance. Thought she might make a pretty toy."

"A spy," thundered the leader. "Well, well, well. Who do you work for?"

Earenis was silent and gave the Orc only a scowlish stare.

"As you wish," he calmly replied. "You will speak. Maybe you'll be something for the master too..."

She listened in amazement. Which master? But the orcs left her no time to ask.


	11. News for the Lord

Elrond hated paperwork, he always had. It always felt like punishment. But there was a certain irony in the fact that he did all the work himself. In the old days, when he had served under Gil-galad and lived with him in Lindon, the High King had let him be secretary to his councils from time to time, which meant that he had to keep the records and was not allowed to have a say. Gil-galad had known that he hated such things, but with an undeniable malicious joy he had told him to do it anyway. It had just been his way of punishing him when he hadn't done his job.

With a smile Elrond thought back to his old friend. He missed him, him and his strange jokes and quirks. But then he returned to his work. Theoretically, he would have had his writers who would have presented him with the finances ready calculated and evaluated, practically he felt more comfortable if he took such things into his own hands, because only then he was sure that everything was really right. At least theoretically.

There was a knock at the door and he invited them in. It was Ceomon, his valet and friend.

" Lord Elrond," he greeted him. "A messenger from Gildor has just arrived and brought this letter. Besides, supper is ready."

Elrond gratefully received the letter. "When dinner is ready, please send for Arwen and Estel, will you? And also Legolas and Gimli, while we're at it." After all, since the War of the Ring, they too must be given the honor...

Ceomon followed and Elrond went into the dining room of his chambers. The table was already set and the food was being served. He sat down at his place at the front of the table and studied thoughtfully the message Gildor had sent him. Shortly afterwards his guests arrived.

"You sent for us, Father," Arwen greeted him.

"Dinner is served, Thelmae has cooked," he said. "Sit down."

At the mention of the cook, the enthusiasm in his children's eyes immediately flashed. Gimli had already been eyeing the food expectantly, and even Legolas seemed to know that he always ate well. They sat down and servants handed out the food.

"What is that letter you have there?" asked Estel. "It seems to keep you busy."

Before Elrond could begin to answer, he was interrupted by Arwen.

"Father, is this special food you're feeding me here?" she exclaimed.

"Yes, of course," he calmly replied. "Child, one does not handle such a pregnancy lightly."

"I should know better than you, after all I am pregnant and not you."

"But I have been with your mother through two pregnancies already!"

"Father!

At least on Elrond's part, the conversation was over. Disgruntled, Arwen ate her food. In the background, Gimli tried in vain to suppress a laugh, which earned him an angry look from Elrond's daughter. He was silent immediately.

"Gildor wrote that orcs have been sighted in recent times," Elrond now answered Estel's question. "This is disturbing insofar as we actually assumed that the numbers had decreased and the orcs would not venture too far out of the mountains now."

Now Legolas also became concerned. Matters of Rivendell concerning the orcs of the mountains were also often his father's affairs.

"Do you intend to do anything?", asked Estel.

"That is for me to decide when Gildor arrives," Elrond explained. "He writes that in a few days, that will be the case. Until then, I will keep Glorfindel's eyes open and reinforce the border guards."

"If necessary, I could of course ask my father for assistance," Legolas offered. "But that goes without saying."

Elrond smiled politely. "I will return to the offer if it is indeed necessary. I don't believe it, though. What could orcs possibly want to do even now? They no longer have leadership."

Arwen seized the moment and went to steal food from Estel.

"Daughter!" Nothing escaped the notice of Elrond's keen healer's eye.

"But, Father... I am not a little child anymore," protested Arwen.

"But still significantly younger than me."Now eat your food and don't help yourself to Estel." Elrond admonished her severely.

The defiance spoke from Arwen's eyes, but she obeyed.


	12. Gildor's raport

As Elrond had said, he took the necessary precautions. Better safe than sorry. He called Glorfindel to reinforce the guards in the valley and towards the wilderness and sent some patrols beyond the valley to scout the situation. In addition, his sons had been lost for a while again, so he could also have them looked after. Those boys could never listen to their father...  
A few days later, Gildor and his followers arrived back in the valley, a rare sight, since the prince of the former Nargothrond preferred to roam the lands rather than have a roof over his head. As Elrond was pleased to note, Elladan and Elrohir were also found in his company. He had a rant on his tongue when the homecomers entered the house, but he swallowed it. The twins could take care of themselves (although he was always worried about them).  
Gildor insisted that he report immediately, so Elrond invited him to his reception room and had some food brought for Gildor.  
"Well?" he began. "You wrote something about orcs."  
"That is so," Gildor confirmed. "So my messenger reached you in time. It's not the most disturbing news, but I think it's worth considering. As we roamed the lands, news of Orc sightings began to accumulate. The birds and other animals spread this news quickly. It is quite unusual in that respect, since orcs are said to have been sighted even at some distance from the high mountains. Very brave for them, now that they are without guidance."  
Elrond put on a thoughtful face. "Can you give any reason for this behavior? Could it be that something drove them from the mountains?"  
Gildor shook his head. "I don't know," he confessed. "I can't explain it either. Perhaps that's what's so disconcerting... ...that it seems to be happening for no reason."  
"Have you followed up these sightings in any way?" Elrond kept asking.  
"We searched the land for traces of orcs and found some," Gildor confirmed. "Among other things, we found two dead trolls near the Trollshaws. When we found them, they had not been dead for long. One had his head almost severed, the other had his throat ripped out. The bite marks looked like they came from a wolf-like animal. Considering its size, it could have been a Warg.  
Furthermore we found numerous weapons and armor worn by orcs in the cave, the number was unusually high. Either these trolls had attacked orcs or they got into conflict between several rival orc tribes. Either way, it is a cause for concern that orcs are venturing so far out from the mountains again."  
"So you think it would be wise to investigate," Elrond concluded.  
Gildor nodded. "So it is. The orcs seem to come from the north, that's probably where you should start first."  
"Always the North," Elrond murmured. Was it a bad omen? He was wary of what he heard. To hear from Orcs again so soon after Sauron's fall was not a message he had hoped for. ...especially now that he was about to take to the West.  
"What do you intend to do, my lord?" Gildor asked.  
"A small Orc hunt has never hurt anyone," Elrond said.


	13. Depature to the North

After Lord Elrond had announced that he wanted to go out to hunt orcs, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli of course could not say no. Arwen was not too happy that her husband, brothers and father were going out to hunt, but they assured her that they would not be gone for too long.

A few days later the time had come and all preparations had been made. On Gildor's advice, Lord Elrond had selected some fifty soldiers from his household under Glorfindel's leadership. From Aragorn's retinue, they were accompanied by another twenty soldiers, in addition to his Kingsguard, so that it was possible to speak of a small force moving out here.

But since that matter with Celebrían had happened, Elrond preferred to take every precaution.

As usual, Gimli sat on the horse behind Legolas, even though he was already cursing inside at the thought of having the hair of the elf permanently on his face. They were still waiting for Arwen to say goodbye to her family, and then it was off. Legolas drove his horse to Aragorn and Lord Elrond to the head of the procession.

For once, this day was not rainy, even though the sky was cloudy. The air was damp and clammy from all the rain, which made riding not very pleasant. Soon Gimli shivered. He pulled a blanket from his luggage and wrapped himself in it.

To pass the time a little, he watched his fellow travellers, most of whom he knew only from stories. Elrond's sons were the spitting image of their father and were in fact very similar to him. Although he knew them a little when they had moved south with the Grey Host last year, it was only now that he saw the striking resemblance to their father.

In character, however, they seemed to be quite different from Lord Elrond. Joking and laughing they rode ahead and seemed to take life all too easily. Occasionally they also included Aragorn in their jokes, who seemed to be quite willing to take it.

Lord Elrond seemed to be the lord he was known to be, even though he was quite disapproving of his sons' activities. Gimli had admittedly been very irritated by what he had experienced on the day of his arrival at Imladris. He had asked Legolas whether Lord Elrond was always like this, since he knew that Legolas had been here several times before. To his greatest astonishment, his friend had answered in the affirmative.

Glorfindel, an elf whom Gimli had never met before, sat on his snow-white stallion as if he had swallowed a stick. Legolas had told him that Glorfindel had once been a prince of Gondolin, master of the House of the Golden Flower and Balrog Slayer. Admittedly: He looked like one. As arrogant and conceited as Gimli usually imagined an elf to be. He hadn't had much to do with him yet, but this verdict was soon established.

And then there was Ceomon and Rethtulu, Elrond's inevitable shadows. As Gimli had heard, they had actually been the Lord's servants for many hundreds of years, but they were probably more or less his friends as well. Even if Gimli could not understand how anyone could gain anything from Rethtulu. The elf was scary to him. He always wore impressive armour without exception, yet he moved as silently as a shadow and had the ability to appear before you as if from nowhere. Ceomon seemed to be more sociable and above all not as formal as Rethtulu.

That evening they set up camp early. On the one hand it got dark quite fast and on the other hand nobody really wanted to travel in these weather conditions. So the tents were quickly pitched and the fires lit. Gimli poked at the fire listlessly with a log. Legolas read in his new treasure, which he had managed to steal from Erestor. Aragorn joked with the twins. Elrond watched Ceomon suspiciously as he wrote; Rethtulu was nowhere to be seen, probably he was somewhere cutting Elrond's food into bite-sized portions. Glorfindel patrolled the camp and imperiously kept order.

To pass the boredom away a little, Gimli read in Legolas' book.

" _Elloth was the only child of this union and therefore heiress to the title of a baroness," it said, "Of course, nobody suspected that she would later become queen mother. But she caught Fingon's eye with her sweeping ball gown. Uncle Maedhros never got tired of telling amusedly how Fingon, in the middle of a conversation with him, suddenly caught the eye of this somewhat small but in her own way outstanding elf. It is said that even the wine goblet had fallen out of his hand..._ "

"Who is this Elloth?" Gimli asked.

"Gil-galad's mother," Legolas replied. "This is just a description of how Fingon met her, an interesting place, I think, because it casts a completely different light on some things. But here, read on."

Gimli followed up.

" _But it was even more exhilarating for my uncle when Fingon moved closer and whispered to him whether he knew who this elf was who demonstratively turned his back on him. Fingon must have been very fond of Elloth from the beginning, because he was obviously embarrassed, although he had been such a valiant elf. Maedhros, always blessed with an infallible instinct for his fellow elves, had taken him without further ado and introduced him to Elloth. Elloth had indeed turned away from Fingon beforehand, as she wanted to counter his all too obvious staring in her own way, but now she was forced to have a conversation with her lord Maedhros, which made it inevitable for her to exchange a word or two with Fingon as well. Thus they were both introduced to each other._ "

"And who is this Maedhros?" Gimli wanted to know.

Legolas sighed. "The oldest of Feanor's seven sons," he explained. "You have heard of Celebrimbor, the one who wrote the Scriptures at the doors of Moria. He was the son of Curufin, one of Maedhros' brothers. They are kinslayers and now all justifiably dead, but still, this is not an uninteresting work, I think.

How Gimli hated answers that only breed more questions! So he left it alone. He had noticed Elrond giving them disapproving looks anyway, even though he didn't know what his crime was. The question was never answered, because at that moment something else caught Elrond's attention.

"Ceomon, you are not supposed to write it like that!" he flared up. "Does it have to be said over and over again?!"

"Yes, of course," contradicted Ceomon. "If you are descended from Melian, it should be mentioned."

"No one cares whether there was a Maia among my ancestors or not," Elrond objected. "Leave out this whole part about Earendil and Elwing, that's the least interesting anyway. I can't even remember it myself."

Ceomon looked at him reproachfully. "What kind of a biography would this be if I didn't at least mention your parents?"

"It was Uncle Maedhros and Uncle Maglor, you know it was!" protested Elrond.

"Ceomon, why don't you just do as you're told", Aragorn now interfered, but had to refrain from laughing.

"I can't do that, you know, Estel!" complained Ceomon. "If I'm going to write a biography of Lord Elrond, something like that must appear in it. It was a compromise to have Lord Elrond proofread the manuscript again."

"This is _my_ biography you are writing!" Elrond reminded him.

"And I have known you practically all your life," Ceomon objected.

Elrond snorted disapprovingly and let Ceomon grant him.

Gimli threw a skeptical glance at Legolas. But he only shrugged his shoulders, grinning. That's the way it was sometimes.


	14. A surprise rarely comes alone

In the next few days the weather actually improved. At least it didn't rain almost continuously anymore and now and then the sun broke through the cloud cover. It didn't get very warm, but at least it wasn't as wet and cold as in the last days.

As Gildor had reported, they moved north and searched there for traces. Lord Elrond had sent out lookouts to scout the land and report back at regular intervals. Surprisingly, they soon found clues to orcs, whispers and rumors, and indeed many leads. Gradually they began to consider the situation more serious than they had previously thought, especially since no one could explain why orcs suddenly appeared again.

Their way led them into barren northern regions where winter was approaching noticeably. The land seemed empty, as if it had already prepared itself for the coming winter. There was no life to be seen far and wide, although Legolas claimed that there were many animals living here that Gimli simply didn't notice.

After a few days of walking they found what they were looking for. Elrond's furry mountain with the name Garahû suddenly struck and stormed off. The lord had to call his dog off, otherwise he would have run off. Garahû turned back restlessly but trotted off again when Elrond told him to show them what he had found. Again and again the dog turned around to see if they were still following him or had already vanished into thin air.

Garahû led them to a steep and jagged rock face. Sniffing excitedly at the ground, he ran up and down the same spot over and over again, scratching in the dirt. Barking, he ran to Elrond and jumped joyfully around his horse to get his reward for the find. Elrond had to get off his nervous horse and calm his dog before they could continue.

What Garahû had found was a cave from which an all too characteristic odor emanated: orcs.

"Looking at the tracks here it seems we have found the root of the evil," said Aragorn. "Many of the tracks are fresh and seem to come and go at regular intervals."

"Ha!" exclaimed one of the twins. Elladan or Elrohir? Gimli simply could not tell them apart! "This will be fun! They certainly didn't expect us!"

Gimli did not care whether they were expected or not. The important thing was that they reached their destination and he could finally get off the horse. A bit cumbersome he swung off the back of the much too big animal and was glad to finally have solid ground under his feet again. What he was also was a dwarf, whose axe became restless in his hand and who was glad to finally have knife work in front of him again. Yes, that was sure to be fun! Maybe a bit more dangerous, since they didn't know exactly what to expect, but there was a certain attraction in it.

Lord Elrond inspected the area, then he gave his orders. Aragorn silently took them over for his soldiers, even though they were not pro forma under the lord's authority. Everyone was on the alert and they entered the cave, always alert for danger.

Darkness surrounded them, but soon torches were lit. It soon became clear that this was not really a suitable place for a fight, for the passage was not too wide and uneven. They couldn't make out branches, but soon there were traces of orcs. Further ahead they heard voices and characteristic screams.

Elrond, his ancient sword Nahtanár firmly in hand, went first with Glorfindel, Ceomon and Rethtulu, followed by his sons and the three friends. Soon they saw fire shining before them and a cave opened up. Some orcs sat around several fires, but considering the supplies and armor piled up on the walls, these were not the only orcs. Lord Elrond gave a silent order, then he went on to attack. The troops followed him.

Shocked, the orcs jumped up, but they weren't up to this unexpected onslaught. Quickly they were slain, but the noise of the battle did not go unnoticed. The cave had another exit that led deeper into the mountain. From this one more orcs seemed to come to explore what this noise meant. They regrouped to face the attack.

It must have been a good dozen orcs that rushed over to greet them. They were greeted by sharp elven blades and arrows. Some of them ran back to sound the alarm, the rest were quickly killed. Then they chased the fleeing ones.

After a few turns of the tunnel they reached another, bigger cave. And an unpleasant surprise. Here were not only a dozen orcs, here lurked a large horde of fiends, which was equal to them in number.

Lord Elrond did not hesitate for a moment. He quickly grasped the situation and gave his orders. Gimli was admittedly impressed. But what else had he expected? He fought here side by side with the Herald of the Last Alliance. So he did what he was supposed to do, and swung his axe diligently.

A fierce battle ensued. The orcs were by no means defenseless. Their only weakness, however, was that they faced the discipline of the Noldor in disorganized ranks. They were unable to stand up to the elves' great broad shields and deadly swords, and Aragorn's soldiers were an all too difficult obstacle.

Gimli swung his axe to all sides. The orcs had probably not expected a dwarf, because only a few of them looked down. So he trimmed them to his size. Only marginally he noticed how a particularly large orc, probably the leader of this horde, pushed through the ranks of his subordinates and aimed at Aragorn. But since the orcs around the dwarf soon lost heart, he assumed that Aragorn had been able to defeat his opponent. Soon after, they were victorious and the orcs were slain.

Cries of joy became loud and people patted themselves on the shoulders laughing. They had done well here. Gimli grinned in his beard when he saw Legolas coming towards him.

"I have eleven," he proclaimed.

"I think you are ahead of me," Legolas admitted. "Well fought!"

" _Canu Elerondo!_ " exclaimed one of the elves at that moment. "We have found a prisoner!"

They hurried to the spot where the elf pointed. What they found was indeed another surprise: a dark-skinned elf looking towards them gloomily.


	15. Unpleasant encounters

Earenis preferred not to look at her leg. When she saw this strange twisted thing, it hurt even more. Cursed Orcs. Luckily they hadn't touched her yet, the beating and cuts were bad enough.  
They had locked her up together with Mistaroa in a small cage, from which they occasionally pulled her out to have their fun with her. A possibility of escape had not yet arisen. So she was all the more surprised when rescue came unexpectedly. Less pleasing was how this rescue looked like.  
These were Noldor, she recognized that immediately, and when she saw the banner, she also knew who the tall leader of the soldiers was: Elrond of Rivendell.

She watched the battle uninvolved from her dark corner. Even though the orcs were numerous, the battle was soon decided. Just as soon they had found her and unlocked the cage's lock. Darkly she looked at the lord when he came and looked at what his men had found there. He had driven her mother out of Rivendell, he was to blame for everything!

"Ceomon, Rethtulu, quick, my bag! She is injured," he turned to two tall Noldor at his side.

hey hurried off immediately, while two of the people who had accompanied the Noldor carefully lifted her out of the cage. King Elessar had long since spotted them, for he was too prominent a figure not to be immediately recognised as the King of Gondor and Arnor. At the moment, however, she had other worries than to rack her brains over the king, for her leg again hurt like hell. Hissing, she sucked the air between her teeth.

"Careful!," Elrond warned the men.

They laid her on a cloak spread out in a hurry, and immediately Lord Elrond took a closer look at her wounds. At that moment Ceomon and Rethtulu also returned with the bag, which smelled suspiciously of herbs.

"Hold her," the lord now ordered them. Addressing Earenis, he added: "Your knee is dislocated. Before we do anything else with you, it must be straightened. It will hurt, so be brave."

Disgruntled, she hummed her agreement. It did not pleaseed her at all that of all people this Half-elf ran into her. Until now she had successfully avoided the Hidden Valley.

The two Noldor, apparently servants of the lord, grabbed her by the shoulders and arms and pressed her firmly to the ground. Elrond knelt beside her legs and grabbed the injured one firmly. Then there was a brief jerk, followed by a terrible pain, and Earenis cried out in pain, even though she had resolved not to do so. She rebelled against the hands that held her tight, but soon it was all over. Elrond fetched bandages from his bag, which he tied around the injured knee, but only temporarily.

King Elessar had searched the cave by now, but no other orcs were found. They had killed everyone. Since there was nothing more to do with it here, Elrond ordered Rethtulu to carry her carefully outside and they left this stinking place.

Finally breathing fresh air again! At first Earenis was blinded by the brightness of the day, but she enjoyed the wind on her skin. She didn't know how long she had been trapped, probably several days. So it felt good to finally be free again.

Lord Elrond, together with King Elessar, looked after the wounded, whose number was not too high. Meanwhile, Earenis was fed and watered. She swallowed them both greedily. Then the two high lords came to her again, this time followed by a blond Noldo, whom Earenis assumed to be Glorfindel, and, to her astonishment, Legolas and Gimli as well. Not that she had ever seen them before, but a _laegel_ in the company of a dwarf was probably seen only once in a lifetime.

Lord Elrond cared for her other wounds and bandaged her leg properly. Only when he had brought her some food did he allow to ask her the obligatory questions.

"What is your name?" King Elessar asked her.

"Earenis," she replied reluctantly. She did not like the whole situation.  
"What brings you to these parts?" the king continued to ask, notwithstanding the growl of Mistaroa, who felt his master's discomfort and so warned everyone to do something to her.

"The same as you, I suppose," she replied sniffily. "Only that I stupidly only have my dog with me."

"Do you know anything about these Orcs?" Lord Elrond now interfered. "Do you know why they suddenly appear in such great numbers so far off the mountains?"

She looked at him with hatred, but though he could not have failed to notice, he did not flinch.

"No, I don't know anything about it," she said with great restraint. Having to see Elrond brought everything to the boil that she had thought buried deep inside her for years. "That is, perhaps I do. During my captivity, I heard the orcs speak. They spoke of a new lord further north, but I do not know who he is. They called him simply Ghâshburz."


	16. To Imladris

For this day they set up camp near the cave. Earenis was left alone for the time being after this interrogation. Since Elrond was well aware that she was not particularly well disposed toward him, though he may not have known the reason, King Elessar had continued to tend to her wounds. She was uncomfortable that the king himself cared for her, but she soon discovered that it was not for nothing that the hands of a king were said to be the hands of a healer. Soon the pain in her body subsided.  
Little by little Mistaroa also calmed down after he had noticed that nobody could harm his master so quickly. Now he lay dozing beside her camp and kept watch.   
At that moment this furry mountain came to them, who apparently belonged to Lord Elrond. First he stopped at some distance and sniffed respectfully. Mistaroa opened an eye and watched the strange dog. Slowly he came closer. He was only curious, Earenis recognized that, but Mistaroa didn't seem to like his presence. He lifted his flews and growled threateningly. The other dog paused for a moment, but then ventured further.  
This was too much for Mistaroa. Teeth-breaking and with a terrible bark he jumped up and was about to pounce on the other dog. At that moment Elrond stepped in when he realised what his dog had done.  
"Garahû!," he shouted loudly through half the camp. "Over here!"  
Garahû pointed his ears and turned away, unimpressed by Mistaroa's threatening gestures. Only slowly did the wolfhound calm down. Earenis told him that they would have to come to terms with these people for now. Mistaroa didn't seem to like this very much.  
Both because of her injuries and her news that the orcs had a new master, Elrond had decided that it was probably wiser to bring her to Imladris. It was safer for her, he had said. She'd just snorted inwardly. If he knew who she was! But no, she had to keep a low profile. Despite all his dislikes, he was still a powerful lord of the elves and she was just a simple mercenary.  
Nearby, she could hear Gimli and Legolas talking. They must have thought she did not hear them.  
"She is unusual, have you noticed?" said the elf at that moment.  
"Above all, I noticed that she was not very enthusiastic when she saw us," his friend replied.   
"Yes, I noticed that too," Legolas agreed. "I wonder who she is. Her name alone is not normal. It is Quenya, most unusual for these days."  
"Elves and their languages..." mumbled the dwarf.  
"Languages are very important to us," Legolas affirmed. "The first elves to awaken at Lake Cuiviénen called themselves Quendi, those who speak with voices, because in those days they knew no other beings who spoke like them. This is very defining, of course."  
"Yes, yes, it's all right," Gimli swayed. "But quite honestly, it's not only her name that's not quite normal about her. Have you ever seen anyone with such skin color?"  
"No. That is..." And Legolas conspiratorially lowered his voice so that Earenis hardly understood him anymore. "Orcs are of a similar skin colour."  
"Do you really think...?" Earenis could literally hear the frown.  
"That she had something to do with Orcs?" Silence. Then, "No. That is, I'm not sure. She says herself that she has hunted Orcs as well. Yet there is something about her that is not quite right. Who is she really? Where does she come from? What brings her to these parts? Why is she even alone in the wild?"  
"So many questions and no answers," Gimli agreed. "Just ask her."  
Legolas snorted. "I can't do that. It's not polite. She must have her reasons for being so silent."  
Gimli laughed softly. "You like her, and now you're too shy to walk up to her!"  
"Oh, be quiet!"  
Earenis didn't listen any further. The rest was just friendly banter. She didn't like Legolas, she decided. He was a pure blood and he asked too many questions. But she didn't approve of that at all. She had to be careful, she saw that now, because she did not want her secret to be known. In the next weeks she would have to be careful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohh, I just HAVE to share it! It's so hilarious! I translate the text with the help of a program named deepl. It translated "Sie hatte nur innerlich abfällig geschnaubt." to "She'd just snorted a snort of snorting inside." and I just fucking can't! :D


	17. The orc's daughter

King Elessar had delegated two soldiers to look after her. They had made a stretcher for her out of two strong branches and a cape, with which they could transport her comfortably and as shock-free as possible, since Earenis could not walk with her injured leg. Since Lord Elrond had apparently noticed that she was not too well disposed towards him, King Elessar now cared for her wounds. He had once been a ranger, she knew that, and he had learned from Lord Elrond, and indeed one could tell.

The next days were monotonous. Earenis could do nothing but lie on her stretcher and stare at the sky. Mistaroa always kept close to her, even though he made the two Gondor soldiers nervous. After he growled at them a few times and made them believe that Earenis belonged to him, he calmed down, as the men also understood their limits.

She could see it in the faces of everyone here: They all wondered who she really was, for no one had ever seen an Elf like her. There were many here who had known her mother, and Earenis feared that sooner or later someone would recognize her. She cursed her bad luck to have stumbled into this orcish cave of all places.

Finally they turned into a hidden valley, and although Earenis had successfully stayed away from here all her life, she knew they had reached Imladris. She wished to be far away.

She was immediately brought to a small room with a window overlooking a small garden. The smell of herbs was in the air. Shortly afterwards an elf came to her, helped her out of her armour and laid her comfortably on the bed. Then she was left alone with herself and her thoughts for a while. Earenis pulled the blanket up to her ears and hoped to make herself invisible. Everything inside her cried out for escape. Her life had been destined to run away from her origin, but here... She preferred not to think about it at all.

A while later, one of the two Noldor she had always seen with Lord Elrond came to her. It was the one with the friendlier face, Ceomon, if she remembered correctly."The Lord has sent me," he greeted her. "Your equipment looks rather worn out, and he says it would be safe in your mind to have it repaired. So I was wondering if you would allow me to take it to a blacksmith."

Earenis just nodded. "How much will it cost?" she asked, hoping that she could pay it.

Ceomon frowned. "Nothing, of course," he affirmed.

It was astonishing.

Since she said no more backtalk, Ceomon took up her armor and sword. But at the door, he paused once more and turned to her.

"Sleep a little longer," he said. "You're going to need it, I'm sure. Tonight the Lord will come to you again. There are still some unanswered questions." Then he left.

Earenis sank even deeper into the pillows. Mistaroa, humming, laid his head on the edge of the bed and put his wet nose in her hand. At least that gave her some security.

As Ceomon had said, she tried to find a little rest, even if it took a long time. And even then, her sleep was restless and not very restful. She always had in mind where she was here and where she would like to be most: far away.

As Ceomon had threatened, the master of the house came to her in the evening, accompanied by King Elessar. She could curse them both. Wasn't it enough for Lord Elrond to want to talk to her? Did they have to put her under pressure with the king as well? She gnashed her teeth and pinched her lips together.

"We have already had a little talk," M Lord Elrond began, while pulling a chair to her bed and sitting down. Mistaroa sniffed at his hand and briefly lifted his lips, but otherwise left him alone. King Elessar, meanwhile, had leaned casually against the windowsill.

"I hope everything has been done to your satisfaction," Elrond continued. "You may, of course, say at any time if you wish anything."

"Hmmm ..." Nothing more.

If he was offended by this sparse response, Elrond did not let it show. "Why were you after these orcs?" he asked and finally got to the heart of the matter.

"Curiosity," she replied curtly.

"It is a bit unusual, don't you think?"

He just wouldn't let up! Earenis bowed to her fate, sighing inwardly, for she realized that she would probably not escape this situation. "I helped some farmers in a village a few days' walk from here. They had a problem with two trolls, so I took care of them. But in the cave, I found lots of orcish armor and weapons. It seemed strange, so I went after it with Mistaroa. I was just a little careless..."

"How is it you come to wander alone in the wilderness?" the king interfered. "I know not an elf who does, not even the women of the Dúnedain."

"I'm a mercenary, so what?" she answered more impudently than she should. "Well, I have to earn my keep with something, don't I?" _Not everyone can be king_ , she added in her mind, but she did not dare to say so.

"And what makes you do this... profession?" Elessar asked.

"Is this an interrogation?" She just couldn't hold on to herself any longer.

"Yes.

The bluntness with which Lord Elrond said it caught her attention.

"There have been some strange things going on lately", the Half-elf now declared. "And you seem to have something to do with it. Perhaps you just stumbled into the whole affair by chance, but we can only know that when you answer our questions, for which we would be very grateful."

Earenis noticed her hands beginning to shake. As a precaution she clenched them into fists. She would not be able to lie, she knew that, but she could not tell the truth either. Unfortunately, she had no choice.

"My mother is from here," she said quietly and reluctantly. Perhaps Lord Elrond did not remember her, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps... 'But she was no longer welcome here after she gave birth to me. We lived in a little hut in the Troll Shaws, and when I was old enough, my mother went to bed one day and never woke up. The only thing I know how to do is fight, so I do it."

"Oh..." Because, of course, Elrond remembered this inconvenient truth from that day.

"And your father?" Elessar didn't suspect, but was immediately interrupted by Elrond.

"Estel, come along," he said sternly.

The king seemed surprised, but followed the master of the house out of the room. For a while, Earenis heard whispers outside the door, which finally stopped. Then Elrond came to her again, but this time alone. He seemed to be entered, as much as it surprised Earenis.

"Listen," he began, not quite sure where to begin. "What happened then... I wanted to prevent it, believe it or not. I may be the lord of this valley, but I, too, have obligations to my people. I cannot decide over their heads, especially not when it was demanded so decisively to send your mother away. My hands were tied and I had no choice but to bow to the will of my people. I hope you understand that..."

She was silent, too stunned to say anything. The truth was, she didn't know how to react. Had _Lord Elrond apologised_ to her?!

Since she was unwilling to say anything in response, Elrond thought it best to leave now. Earenis stared at the closed door long after he had left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be off for a holiday so no updates next week. If you enjoy this and you can read german you can drop by the original text :)


	18. Spirits that I've cited

The evening had progressed far in the meantime, but Elrond still did not find peace. He sat in his chambers with a glass of wine and stared into his fire. Warm flames crackled and dispelled the cold of late autumn. Earenis simply could not get out of his mind.

Of course he had felt from the beginning that she didn't really like him, but only now did he know the reason for it: The girl blamed him for all the evil that had happened to her. He could not blame her.

Elrond did not know if Earenis really believed him, but he had meant every word he said. The unpleasant business of six hundred years ago came up again in him. He had spoken for Lothwen, he had not wanted her to be sent away. She would have needed his help. Hearing now that she had died alone in the wilderness stung him. If he had been allowed to keep her here without turning the whole valley against him, she would have survived. Maybe she would have gone to the West like his Celebrían, but she would live and her daughter would not have to bear such a heavy fate.  
He noticed that his chalice was empty again and reached for the carafe that stood next to him on a small side table. When he wanted to refill, he noticed that he had already drunk all the wine. Oh…

At that moment he heard footsteps behind him and when he turned around he saw Ceomon and Rethtulu standing in the doorway. 

"Lord, is she really the girl of Lothwen?", Rethtulu asked unusually direct for his circumstances. Deep astonishment echoed in his voice. "Is she really still alive?"

"Seems so," Elrond commented, hoping that he was not sounding as if he had drunk a little too much wine as was good for him. 

But his two friends knew him too well for that. Ceomon noticed the empty wine carafe. 

"Is it empty?" he asked.

Elrond just nodded and was punished with a blaming look. 

"Lord, you know you cannot drink that much," Ceomon rebuked him.

Sometimes the lord wondered who stood over whom. But he could not blame the two of them, after all, they had known each other almost all his life. One could hardly count the few years in Arvernien.

Rethtulu saved him from a lecture, though. "What do you want to do with her now?", he asked. "Nurse her back to health, yes, but after that? And as for what she said about the orcs... That name, Ghâshburz, is foreign to me."

"It's no different for me." Elrond pointed to his chalice. "Contrary to my planning, that did not contribute to the solution." 

Ironically, he wished he could still use Vilya. But with the destruction of the One, the Ring had lost all of its own power. Now he felt so blind and deaf without it. Amazing how quickly he had gotten used to such an extraordinary artifact. So now he was on his own.

"What I will do with Earenis when she is well again, I don't know," he continued. "Probably best to let her go, if that is her wish. But I just don't know if and in what way a compensation is appropriate - if such a thing can be compensated at all." He sighed. "I feel like this is all my fault."

Ceomon waved. "Oh, nonsense!" he said. "What can you do about it? It was just bad luck. You, too, have obligations to your people, as I'm sure you told the girl."

"If Celebrían had been in her place, no one would have taken such liberties!" he said. Just the thought of it made him sick.

"So what?" Ceomon cut him off. "What's done is done. There's nothing you can do about it now anyway. If you want, I'll tell the girl that you want to make amends. I'm sure she'll come to you."

"If you think..." Elrond was not so sure. Again he sighed, leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs. "And as for what Earenis told us... I suppose we shall have to wait and see how things develop in the weeks ahead. Glorfindel is already sending out his scouts."


	19. Questlog: A thief in the night

In the next weeks Earenis couldn't do much more than lie in her bed and stare at the ceiling. Several times a day an elf came in, brought her food and asked if she wanted anything. If it was necessary, she brought fresh laundry, made her bed and ventilated the room. Lord Elrond rarely came to see her, mostly King Elessar looked after her. 

She had heard that Lord Elrond was apparently really sorry about what had happened and that he wanted to make up for everything, but she still did not really want to believe it. All her life she had avoided this place, the emotions that were connected with it were not so easy to wipe away.

In the same way she had of course heard that they talked about her meanwhile. Someone seemed to have noticed who she was and within a short time almost the whole valley knew. She was not met with too much love. No one spoke openly against her, but she felt that many wanted to and only the word of their lord held them back. Even the elf who took care of her always looked at her with that look, which Earenis did not like at all.

When her leg had healed far enough that she could walk again with help, she got crutches, so that she could leave the bed alone. She was very happy about that, because the endless bedriddenness had made her feel restless inside. As if liberated, she now made sweeping rounds through Imladris every day, for she had quickly learned how to use her crutches.

Her recovery proceeded quickly, although not as fast as with elves due to the orcish heritage. But she was admittedly in good hands here and so she could not complain. Only a few weeks later she was even able to take off her crutches. Lord Elrond nevertheless advised her to stay here for a few more days so that they could be absolutely sure that everything had healed.

When she returned to her room after one of her evening rounds, she found a surprise there. The window was open, the elf maid had already brought the dinner. The thing that caught Earenis' attention, however, was a small piece of paper lying on her bed. Astonished she picked it up and read what was written on it.

"Come to the old split oak after nightfall," it said. Nothing more. 

Earenis looked around to see if she could find a clue to the sender of this message, but that was not the case. She had Mistaroa sniffed at it, but even that yielded no result. Strange.

"Do you think we should go there today?" she asked her dog while she was reaching for her food.

Mistaroa tilted her head and seemed to have only eyes and a nose for the sausage that was always added to her dinner for him.

"Greedy dog," she muttered and gave her dog his share. He greedily lunged at it. Still he owed an answer to his mistress. Earenis decided it couldn't hurt to investigate.

As it was written on the note, she waited until it had become dark in the valley. Then she sneaked out of the house, always making sure nobody was watching her. Unnoticed, she could leave the house and then searched for the oak that was described. She quickly found it, because the tree was hard to miss even when the stars were shining. Nobody was to be seen, nevertheless Earenis decided to wait at least a little.

The mysterious author of the message was not long in coming. Suddenly and completely unnoticed a veiled figure stepped out of the shadows to her. Earenis was frightened and drove back, but had immediately regained her composure. The stranger wore a wide, dark cloak, which made him almost completely invisible in the dark. A hood covered his face.

"Did you send me the message?" Earenis asked.

"Yes."

The voice sounded male. It was deep and dark, but even from it, Earenis could not tell much about its owner.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?" she demanded to know. Better get this over with quickly.

"Who I am doesn't matter", the stranger replied. "And what I ask of you is only a small thing. You must get me a ring that is in Lord Elrond's possession, nothing more."

Nothing more?! "That's no small matter, Vilya is one of the three!" she reminded the stranger.

"No! Not this ring!" hastened the stranger to say. "I have no interest in  _this_ artefact, although it is a similar one. It is a small gold ring with emerald inlays. You will find it in the treasure chamber of Rivendell, Lord Glorfindel holds the key."

Sensing Earenis' reluctance, he reached under his cloak and pulled out a bulging purse. "You're a mercenary," he tried. "A very good one, I hear. And I'm sure you like gold, too. This will all be yours if you bring me what I want."

Admittedly, it was tempting. Still, Earenis wondered. She didn't know this stranger and didn't know what he wanted to achieve with this theft. On the other hand, she rarely knew such things; she did not question her customers. And this amount of gold was indeed tempting…

"All right, I'll do it," she finally agreed. She'd do almost anything for gold, after all.

She heard a soft laugh under her hood. "Very nice. You are doing me a great service with this," said the stranger. "And now go and hurry. Winter is coming."


	20. The Emerald Ring

Winter is coming... The words never left Earenis' mind, even if she didn't know what they meant. For quite some time after she had left, she pondered over them, but came to no conclusion that had more to do with the coming season than just the coming of winter. And that was hardly meant.

She left Mistaroa in her room, as he would only disturb her here. Then she set off to fulfill her mission. The stranger had said that Lord Glorfindel possessed the key to the treasure chambers, so she would probably have to steal from him first before she could touch Lord Elrond's possessions. Since she wasn't very good at picking locks with anything other than the sword, she would probably have to go that way.

Glorfindels chambers were quickly found and no one seemed to be around. Very good. One could only hope that the lord had already gone to bed. 

Carefully, she checked the door and to her amazement, found it unlocked. Here, one seemed to have a lot of trust in one's housemates. She entered as quietly as possible. Inside, everything was quiet and dark, Glorfindel must really already be asleep. On quiet soles she crept through the rooms only illuminated by moonlight, while she thought about where she could find something. 

Of all places she found her first destination in the sleeping chamber of the lord. She cursed silently and crept very carefully into the room, one eye always on the sleeping Glorfindel. On the wall next to the door hung a bunch of keys on a nail. Underneath it would surely be the one for the treasure chamber, she hoped. Holding her breath, she reached out for the keys. Slowly, little by little...

Somehow she managed the feat of taking the keys without making a sound. Glorfindel was still sleeping soundly. She hurried to disappear from here. Her heart was pounding with excitement.

So this was done, now it was time to find the treasure chamber she thought was in the cellars. Here too she quickly found it, but now she was faced with another problem: Elrond's guard dogs, lying outside a large door, the goal of her mission. And unlike Garahû, they seemed to be actually trained for the guard. As soon as they sensed even the slightest suspicion, they pricked up their ears. Earenis cursed silently. This would not be so easy.

But who would she be if she let this stop her? She still possessed her special ability that no one knew about. It would require more effort, since she did not know these animals as well as Mistaroa and they were several, but it should be possible. 

As gently as possible she tried to establish a connection to the animals. At first they didn't seem to like it at all, but with some tact Earenis succeeded. Then she made it clear to the animals that she had good intentions and suppressed every thought of the theft. After some good coaxing the guard dogs were finally calmed down and let her pass without any problems. Satisfied grinning she started to tamper with the castle.

It took a moment until she had found the right key, but finally she had been able to open the door to her new wealth. For who said that she would only steal the ring? While she was here before, she could fill her pockets a little more as well.

And she did. The treasure chamber, a large room with several levels, was full of boxes and pedestals full of precious treasures and riches. She even found some ancient armour and weapons here. I wonder who they belonged to. For usually Lord Elrond seemed to display such things in the house; Earenis had already found Gil-galad's spear and armor there, and had admittedly been very impressed.

But now she was faced with the question which of the many rings displayed here was the one she was looking for. A gold ring with green emerald inlays was told to her. While she searched the shelves and boxes for this ring, she picked up one or the other that she could discreetly take, but surprisingly found no ring that could fit this description.

In a dark corner she seemed to have found her target. Here stood an especially heavy and well secured chest. She hesitated. Was the stranger really sure that he wanted something out of it? But then she shrugged her shoulders. That was not her concern. She picked the right key from Glorfindel's keychain and opened the chest.

It wasn't very big and its interior consisted mainly of a velvet cushion. There were several rings on it. Earenis sensed immediately that there was something special about these jewels, even if she couldn't name what it was. Each of the rings was unique, all of them masterly worked. She hesitated for a moment and finally took only the ring she had been ordered to steal. She didn't want to burn her fingers on this one.

The deed was done and now it was time to remove all traces and disappear as quickly as possible. Quickly all the locks were locked again and the keys returned to their original place. Glorfindel was still deep in the realm of dreams and had not noticed anything. Earenis disappeared as fast as possible and returned to her mysterious employer.

He was still waiting where she had left him. When he saw her, she thought she saw a joyful flash under the hood, but maybe she had only imagined it.

"Ah, here you are again," he greeted her. "Did you succeed?"

In reply, she held out her open hand to him with the ring inside. He was about to reach for it, but she quickly pulled her hand away. 

"First the money," she said. "And maybe I'll change my mind. This piece here seems very valuable."

There was no sign of movement under the hood. "You won't want that," he said calmly. "It's too hot stuff for you to keep it here with you safely. If you disappear with it now without a trace, Lord Elrond will know at once that you are the thief. Give it to me. I swear the gold is worth its weight in gold."

Earenis did not let it show, but she basically agreed with him. Yet she hesitated outwardly, but finally gave up the ring in exchange for the gold.

"Good girl," said the stranger. "You will not regret it." And then he disappeared as unnoticed as he had come. Nothing reminded of him except the unexpected wealth in Earenis' hands.


	21. Certain differences

The theft soon became the subject of public discussion and the number one topic of conversation. Lord Elrond was of course furious and probably half of Rivendell heard Lord Glorfindel being verbally shredded. Then the great search began, but no trace of the culprit could be found. He had disappeared from the face of the earth.

A few days later, Legolas and Gimli took advantage of the first really beautiful day in weeks and took a little walk through Rivendell's gardens. Contrary to their plans, they had stayed longer in Imladris, because the weather had tied them up, because in such weather conditions it was no easy task to cross the mountains. They had already sent word to their fathers that they would not worry about why their arrival was delayed.

"Well, do you have any idea who it could have been?", Gimli asked now.

Legolas shrugged his shoulders. "How should I know?" he replied. "I slept as deeply as you did that night. And you know what they say: Not even Lord Elrond's guard dogs sounded the alarm."

"When I think of Garahû, it is no wonder," teased Gimli.

The  _laegel_ poked him in the side. "Don't be so mean," he said with a wink. "Garahû is the only beast of the pack that is so spoiled."

"Are you sure it won't carry over to the other dogs? They're the same breed after all."

"Gimli..."

"Yes, yes, I'll stop." After a while of silence, Gimli returned to his original theme: "Don't you even have a guess who the thief might have been?"

"Nobody from here, that's for sure," said his friend. "I cannot imagine that any Elf here would steal from Lord Elrond."

"Do you think...", and here the  _naug_ lowered his voice, imploring, "do you think one of Aragorn's men could have done it?!"

"No, no way!" Legolas said vehemently. "That's not what I meant! It must have been somebody completely outside, somebody who doesn't stay here."

"That makes sense," Gimli agreed. "Especially since I heard that the stolen ring was very valuable."

"Yes, a ring of power, I have also heard," Legolas said. "Not one of the great rings, but only one of those rings that the Mírdain of Eregion made for practice in the Second Age, but still! With such stolen goods in their pockets, no one would dare stay here any longer than necessary.

"A ring of power?" Gimli marveled. "I thought they were all gone. Then how does Lord Elrond come by such an artifact? Especially since I thought Eregion was destroyed long ago by Sauron.

"He may have succeeded in saving this ring before finally losing Eregion to Sauron - he was leading Eregion's armies in the name of Gil-galad in the war against the Black Enemy. Or someone brought it to him afterwards. Celebrimbor is said to have been very creative in hiding his treasures," Legolas explained.

"It didn't do him much good." But before Legolas could reply, Gimli had already discovered something new: "Look there, there is Earenis. Come on, let's go to her."

Legolas' mine was about to darken. "I don't know, Gimli," he tried to make excuses. Since he knew who her father had been, he could not help but feel as negatively as most of the others here about her. Yes, she couldn't help it, but still he found it disgusting that she was half orc.

Gimli didn't seem to take his hesitation too seriously and was already holding out for the girl, who was sitting on a bench, still unsuspecting, enjoying the late autumn sunrays. Sighing, Legolas followed. It could only end in a disaster.

"Hello," Gimli greeted Earenis enthusiastically and did not even let this wolf beast called Mistaroa, who was watching him suspiciously again, get upset.

"Hello," Earenis growled not very pleased. Her face became even more closed when she spotted Legolas. So the dislikes were two-sided after all. 

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Gimli chattered away. 

"Hmm..."

Legolas had positioned himself beside the bench, arms crossed in front of his chest and looked down at the bastard. Earenis returned the look just as hostile. Only now did Gimli seem to notice the icy atmosphere between the two.

"You could have said hello," he said to his friend.

"No," it came immediately and certainly from him.

Earenis sparkled at him even darker and now Mistaroa growled too. This beast seemed to listen to his mistress much too well even for a dog, it was uncanny for Legolas.

"You are not so unfriendly otherwise, she never did anything to you," Gimli defended the woman.

"But she could," Legolas countered determinedly.

"Racist!" Earenis hissed angrily. "As if I could do something for my parents!"

"Not that, but you're alive, that's enough!" growled Legolas.

"Legolas!", Gimli chimed at him.

"Stay out of this," the  _laegel_ held up. 

"So the noble princeling is too fine a person to surround himself with scum like me or what? You could have let me die in the cave," nagged Earenis.

Legolas was about to go for her throat. "Don't you dare talk to me like that!"

"Stop it, both of you! This is worse than with two little children!" Gimli tried to save what could be saved, but was completely ignored.

"What a pity daddy is so far away!" Earenis countered bitingly. "Can't you cry with him, little boy?"

"There'll be consequences, you bastard!" Not much more and he forgot himself.

"Ha!", she said arrogantly. "Go for it." And with those words she stomped off. "Mistaroa, come!" 

The dog jumped up and ran after her. Legolas stared angrily at them both and wished for his bow. Orcs should be killed, not nursed back to health by Lord Elrond!

Gimli looked at him in astonishment and seemed to consider whether he should follow Earenis, but then decided against it. "What was that all about?!" he said to his friend.

Legolas, on the other hand, didn't go for it and stomped off in the opposite direction.


	22. Grave news

The mood between the two friends cooled down noticeably over the next few days. Gimli still resented Legolas for being so mean to Earenis, even though he couldn't really understand the reason for it. He himself had nothing against the girl. She seemed a bit grumpy and closed, but basically she seemed to be quite all right. And for what had happened to her mother, she really could do nothing! Legolas could hardly blame her.

Since Aragorn had also noticed that the atmosphere between his friends was not the best, he had caught Gimli a few days later. Now they were sitting in a quiet corner of Rivendell, smoking a pipe (Bilbo had given them Longbottom Leaf) and enjoying their simple existence. After all, one did not have to be King Elessar all the time, especially not here at home.

"So, you had a disagreement with Legolas?", Aragorn wanted to know at some point out into the silence.

"You might say so," Gimli agreed, puffing a ring of smoke into the air. "He did not behave very nicely towards Earenis."

Aragorn raised an eyebrow questioningly. "What happened?"

"Admittedly she was not too lovely either," the dwarf admitted. "They got quite angry with each other, probably because of what happened to her mother. Although I simply can't understand it! She is not to blame in this respect."

Aragorn sighed. "Of course you're right. But you can't blame Legolas either - not really anyway. He's a wood elf, and you know what these people are like. Legolas is, to a certain extent, an exception."

"It's still not nice what he did," Gimli said.

"No, by no means," the king agreed. "But perhaps don't hold it against him too long."

The dwarf remained silent for a while, puffing away at his pipe. Finally, he nodded. "You'll be right," he growled into his beard.

Aragorn put one hand on his shoulder. "Just give him a little time, you've become friends after all."

Gimli smiled as he thought back to the beginning. "I think he had already objected, purely on principle, because I was in favor of going through Moria!"

The king laughed. "You see! Just give Legolas a little time to get used to the idea, he'll be fine. After all, even I find it a little disconcerting - especially considering how  _ad_ ... I mean, Lord Elrond was involved." He leaned back. "Well, yes. But I think that's probably the least of our worries right now."

"You mean about the theft?" Gimli asked.

"Also," Aragorn agreed. "But more importantly, I received word today that a large Orcish force has been sighted in the Northern Kingdom. Apparently, it is heading towards Fornost."

"Oh..." Gimli said. "What do you intend to do?

"I will move on to Fornost, though not originally planned," said Aragorn. "Arwen will stay here. Lord Elrond has offered his help and will support me with his soldiers. And perhaps you and Legolas will join us."

"I certainly wouldn't mind, and Legolas probably wouldn't either," the dwarf was sure. "But do you think it has anything to do with this new Lord of Orcs? What did Earenis call him?"  
"Ghâshburz", replied Aragorn. "It is Black Speak and means Dark Fire. And no, I don't know if there is a connection, but I hope not. If there is, it would be truly evil news."

"Have you ever heard that name before?" Gimli wanted to know. "After all, you have travelled quite a bit."

Aragorn had to deny that too. "All we know is what Earenis could tell us. And that is practically nothing. The orcs have a new master, yes, but how far does that go? Is it just individual tribes or... more?"

They didn't want to think about the latter in the first place.

"When will you go?" Gimli asked.

"As soon as possible, as soon as everything is ready."


	23. The inn

And so it went. When Earenis had learned where King Elessar was going and why, she had asked to accompany him. She was in favor with Lord Elrond anyway, so she had redeemed the favor in this way.

She didn't know exactly why she wanted to go with him to Fornost, but she had the feeling that she had set all this loose and maybe had something to do with it personally. She was also eager to pursue all the open questions. She had at least asked carefully, but nobody seemed to have heard that name before. Ghâshburz ... A mystery, because they hardly possessed more than this name.

The only thing that Earenis did not like very much was that both Lord Elrond himself and especially Legolas accompanied King Elessar. She secretly had nothing against Gimli, the dwarf seemed to meet her quite friendly, a pleasant change. But she had already caught Legolas looking at her viciously several times. She hadn't expected anything else from an elf like him. Of course, she was not well received for what she was. It had always been that way.

She avoided him as best she could and preferred to join King Elessar's men as soon as she could no longer avoid the company of the others marching in this small army. But for the most part she stomped along in silence, paying little attention to the people and elves around her.

In the meantime the small army of a good two hundred men, elves and humans alike, had covered a large part of the distance to Fornost under the leadership of Lord Elrond and King Elessar. Winter was approaching and the temperatures had dropped considerably. The nights were now increasingly frosty. So probably everyone was happy when they reached a larger village after more than two weeks of walking. It had an inn, which had been prepared for the army commanders as soon as the inhabitants learned who was arriving. Earenis had also rented a small room from her own money, which she had received for the two dead trolls.

The evening had fallen, and many a soldier treated themselves to a mug of beer in the inn. Earenis had retreated into a dark corner of the bar and treated herself to the innkeeper's beer and some bread, sausage and cheese. While she ate in silence, and Mistaroa would slip in little treats now and then, she watched the other people. King Elessar and Lord Elrond were nowhere to be seen, probably the bustle down here was too turbulent for them. But she saw Legolas and Gimli standing at the bar. Apparently the dwarf tried to persuade his friend to have a sip of beer, who obviously didn't think much of barley brew. Right, the royal family of Eryn Lasgalen were wine lovers, very classy people...

She snorted. Vainglorious cock.

Under the table, Mistaroa buzzed and pushed his wet nose against her leg to beg for another bite. Sighing, she also gave him the rest of the sausage.

Maybe she should have kept her armour on after all, she thought. As Ceomon had said, it had been repaired, as had her sword, and she hadn't had to pay for it. Now she had left her equipment in the small attic room she had rented for the duration of her stay here. After all, she would not need any armor or weapons here. But with so many people around her, she felt defenseless without her equipment.

She decided to eat her food quickly and returned quickly to her small chamber. It was not the best accommodation (Lord Elrond and King Elessar had been given it), but it was enough to sleep. The mattress was filled with straw, and she even had her own blanket and pillow, although both were somewhat thin. But she did not want to complain, she had already experienced worse. The only thing that bothered her was the cold whistling wind. The roof was not completely tight in all places and in some places the cold winter air came in. It could be a fresh night.

Earenis noticed how Mistaroa suddenly became restless. Whimpering softly, he ran up and down the small room, lying down again and again, but never finding any peace. She frowned.

"Well, there's nothing," she said to him. "Lie down and sleep. Or are you too cold?"

Mistaroa pricked up his ears and looked at her with almost indignation. As if to say what his mistress thought of him. She grinned crookedly, scratched him between the ears and then went to bed herself.


	24. Nightly assaults

Earenis did not find sleep for a long time. For one thing, cold chills kept coming from outside under her blanket, but that was not the main problem. Mistaroa's restlessness had infected her and now she was rolling back and forth as well. Her wolfhound seemed to have found sleep in the meantime, but it was apparently not too deep.

An undefined uneasy feeling had taken possession of Earenis. She couldn't determine it exactly, but secretly she felt that something was not quite right. Her instincts usually never deceived her, but this time she just couldn't explain why she was so alarmed.

After a few hours of restless lying down, she decided that it didn't make sense to try to sleep so quickly. She sat down at the edge of the bed and drove over her face, sighing. Maybe she should do some stretching exercises to take her mind off things.

Mistaroa had become awake from her movement, but that wasn't the reason why he suddenly started growling deep in his throat. Earenis paused. And then she heard the creaking.

It was soft and definitely came from the roof. Since she slept directly under the roof truss, she could not assume that there was an animal roaming around. Someone was walking on the roof and seemed careful not to make a sound.

She meant Mistaroa to be quiet and grabbed her sword and the lined underwear she usually wore under her armour. It would at least give her some protection. Then she sneaked out of her small room with her blade drawn to search the inn for the troublemaker. Something was clearly going on here.

She was just passing the door to the king's quarters when she felt someone grab her by the shoulder and twirl her around. She was about to swing her sword when she recognized Legolas just in time and stopped.

"So that's how it is," hissed the elf angrily. "You are an Orc after all. What are you doing here?!"

She snorted and left with a jerk. "Let's see what's making those noises."

"And for that you need a sword?"

She wanted to hit him for his arrogance, but that was never going to happen anymore. Yapping loudly, Mistaroa leapt past them and clawed at the door to King Elessar's chambers. Moments later they heard a loud rumble from them, followed by the sounds of battle.

Earenis seemed forgotten for the moment. Legolas rushed past her, ripped open the door and stormed into the room. Earenis couldn't see much of what was going on, but seeing a stooped, dark-skinned figure was enough for her. Sword raised, she stormed after the _laegel_ with a battle cry.

She faced a terrible mess that a handful of orcs had made. In the short time the king had not managed to get to his sword Andúril and so he helped himself for a long time with the debris of a chair. Legolas had also been unable to find any other weapon than a still smouldering log from the fireplace.

With a fearsome barking Mistaroa pounced on the orcs and Earenis followed him. After all, she was obviously the only one who had a useful weapon at the moment. One of the orcs that beset King Elessar was dead within a heartbeat, the others turned to the new and far more threatening enemy in surprise. This gave the man the opportunity to reach for his legendary sword and now to attack seriously.

In the meantime, the commotion had of course been noticed by others. Just as Earenis rammed her sword into the skull of the last of the orcs, Elrond and his sons and Gimli joined them. Quickly they grasped the situation, but they didn't get a chance to say anything, because they already heard how other orcs might have been tampering with the main entrance of the inn.

"Quickly, we must sound the alarm," exclaimed Lord Elrond and rushed forward. The others followed.

As soon as they reached the stairs leading down to the taproom, the door was already broken open and more orcs streamed into the building. A commotion broke out in the whole inn. Meanwhile all the noise had woken up the other soldiers of Elrond and Elessar, who had been accommodated here. On the king's orders they armed themselves and joined the defence.

There were another twenty orcs who wanted to storm the inn. A wild brawl broke out, everyone shouted wildly. In all the chaos it took a while before the orcs could be pushed back so that they could leave the inn.

Apparently a larger orc horde had crept into the village to lay siege to the inn. The enemies had been noticed by the soldiers outside the inn, who were already hunting for the intruders under the orders of the camp commanders. Apparently the danger was averted as quickly as it had come.  
Earenis felt a hand being placed on her shoulder in recognition. As she looked around, she saw King Elessar standing beside her.

"You have saved my life and prevented evil," he said. "You truly prove your worth."


	25. Questlog: The troublemaker

Apparently they had to deal with a squad of thirty orcs. Maybe they had been sent to scout, maybe they had been sent specifically to this inn. The latter, however, would be a very disturbing thought for all involved.

Nevertheless, things had turned out well once again. None of the soldiers had fallen, there were only a few injured, but they were quickly treated. Also, none of the civilians living here had been injured. Only the landlord had lost some of his inventory, but was compensated for this by King Elessar. King Elessar also promised Earenis a reward, a new sword, as soon as they were in Fornost, even if she tried to refuse it. It was unpleasant for her that everyone was talking about her now, as she had trusted her instincts and saved the king at that very moment.

Now, the next morning, she walked leisurely through the settlement with Mistaroa at her side. Everywhere the soldiers of the King and Master Elrond were to be seen walking through the streets and taking away the corpses of the orcs. Most of them lay around the inn, where their destination had been. Earenis thought about what all this meant and if and how she was involved in all this. She only had this feeling, nothing definite but. Strange things were at work here, and they were all groping in the dark, even the high lords who had retreated to the camp outside the settlement for consultation.

What was going on here? This was a question everyone was asking and no one could answer it at that time. The question remained whether it was perhaps too late when they could. King Elessar, for his part, had now sent scouts into the surrounding area to scout the situation, for he was sure that these were not all the orcs that were currently threatening Fornost.

Completely absorbed in these thoughts, Earenis had not noticed how a woman from the settlement had approached her. She cleared her throat embarrassed and looked up at her shyly.

"May I... may I ask you a favor?", the woman asked softly.

Mistaroa put on his ears, but Earenis told him that everything was fine. "Go ahead," she encouraged the woman to speak. "What is it about?"

"I live with my family in that house over there." The heavily--built woman pointed to the house in question. "For some time now, we have been kept awake at night by eerie noises that seem to come directly from the ground. Also, since those noises have been coming, more and more of my jewellery is disappearing. Could you get to the bottom of this? I would reward you, if that is the way you do things, since I have heard that you are a mercenary."

Earenis shrugged. "If it's nothing else."

The woman smiled gratefully. "That's too kind! Come with me and I'll show you where the sounds come from."

She followed the woman to the house made of wood and clay. A small fenced-in herb garden joined the house they were now entering. The woman came to the outside wall under a curtained window. A bush grew here, which she pushed aside a little and then knocked against the wall.

"Behind it is our bedroom, and it's always about this height," she said. "Maybe you'll find something."

Mistaroa was already sniffing around in the garden, obviously excited by the intense smell of the herbs grown here. Earenis also looked around and searched the ground for clues to the troublemaker. She did not have to search for long.

"Ha!" she exclaimed. "Mistaroa, come here!" Immediately, the big wolfhound shot at her. Earenis pointed to the tracks on the ground and let her dog sniff them. "Search!" she commanded.  
Mistaroa enthusiastically pressed his wet nose to the ground, ran around the bush and finally crawled into the woods.

"These are badger tracks," Earenis explained. As if on command, Mistaroa began infernally barking and scratched the ground so wildly that the clumps of earth behind him flew high into the air. The two women had to keep their distance so as not to be defiled. Obviously Mistaroa had found the badger's burrow hidden behind the bush and dug it up. Only a short time later a terrible screaming and bickering began. Mistaroa snarled and barked and with his roar he made the whole bush shake. The badger seemed to have been found and was now fighting for his life.

The eerie noises lasted only moments, then there was silence. Mistaroa snorted and came out shortly afterwards with a bloody mouth and the dead badger in tow. He trotted to Earenis, presented his prey to her and looked at her with a begging look. She patted his head in praise.

"That should clear all that up," she said. Nevertheless, she crawled into the bush herself and peered into the burrow her dog had dug up. It wasn't too deep, and thanks to Mistaroa's extension of the burrow, she could crawl into it just as easily, even though she could hardly see anything. Nearly blind and only groping she explored the burrow and came across several metal objects. She took them and crawled out of the building again. The daylight revealed several forks and some rings. The glow in the woman's eyes told her that she had found the right thing.

"These are my jewels," exclaimed the woman. "And the cutlery, which I thought I had misplaced. Thank you very much."

Earenis ended the day with a satisfied smile and a fuller purse.


	26. Fornost

After all matters in this village were settled, King Elessar and Lord Elrond left the next morning. The scouts were still on their way, but were expected back for that day. The king wanted to use this time and already to cover another part of the way to Fornost. It was expected that, should no further incidents occur, they would reach their destination in a few days' march. King Elessar had also sent a messenger to Fornost to inform the mayor of his imminent arrival so that he could make the necessary preparations.

Earenis no longer stayed near the army, but explored more and more the nearer surroundings on her own. The incidents at the inn had made her suspicious and she no longer trusted only the soldiers of the king and Lord Elrond. Even when she listened to the nature around her, she could hear that there was something in the wind that was not good news.

Towards evening, when the camp was set up, the scouts returned whom the king had sent the day before. Even though they spoke to the army commanders, only a short time later the whole camp knew of the news. King Elessar had spoken of a larger orcish unit that was heading towards Fornost. In truth, it was an army of several hundred well-equipped orcs that posed a serious threat to the city. Restlessness arose in the camp, and Earenis also felt anxiety rising within himself. As a mercenary, she had often joined wandering troops of soldiers, but mostly they had been hunting scattered orc groups or bandits. Battles could not be called what she had fought there. It was quickly leaked out that they would reach Fornost before their enemy, because they were busy to fire the country, but it was also clear that she would take part in a siege.

However, Earenis wondered why nobody had done anything against the approaching enemy. The Northern Kingdom, although still under construction after it was united with Gondor under King Elessar, had enough soldiers that could have been called upon quickly enough to meet the orcs. When she watched the king that evening, Earenis noticed his concern as well, apparently he thought the same.

Something was going on here. She hated the uncertainty!

The night was short, the army commanders left early the next morning and marched long. They didn't want to waste a moment to gain enough preparation time. Slowly Earenis wondered what she was thinking, asking Lord Elrond to accompany the small army. For one thing, no one really knew how to deal with her, for she did not have a well-defined role in the well-structured Noldorin army, let alone in that of Elessar's royal army, and for another, she did not even have a solid reason for this journey. Just once again, her feeling…

In fact, they reached Fornost one day earlier than planned. The ancient city had long stood as a ruin in the wild expanse of the north after the collapse of the northern kingdom, inhabited only by the spirits of the past and bandits. Under the reign of King Elessar, it was only shortly after his coronation that, at his behest, work had begun to rebuild it, repopulate it and restore it to its former glory. Construction was still going on everywhere, but it was soon recognised that the urbanisation of the north was making good progress. Already now, the city again had numerous inhabitants, who filled the once dead stones of the city with new life.

The fact that Elessar had announced his imminent arrival meant that all the necessary arrangements had been made. Apparently the news of the unexpected orcish army from the Misty Mountains had reached the city and its inhabitants, and Earenis could quickly see that they were happy and relieved to see them here. Especially the elves, who had come with them, were admired by the people here with big eyes. Earenis herself made sure that she hid between the soldiers, so that the eyes would not be too drawn to her. But Lord Elrond and Lord Glorfindel probably attracted the greatest attention anyway, as they entered the city with the king at the head of the army on their noble steeds.

So this was Fornost, an ancient city of the Northern Kingdom. Now it remained to be seen how the further events would develop.


	27. Suspected cases

Elrond rode side by side with Estel into the city. Of course, the inhabitants stared, but he was used to that all his life. An army of elves entered the city, led by a half elf, an even greater curiosity. And then he was him again. Sometimes fame was a millstone, he found. Gil-galad had always laughed when he said that he would be just as happy with his life if he had become a farmer or a simple rural healer. Although... probably the latter. In the end, this attitude was probably simply due to his childhood: He had been raised quite modestly; in the end, uncle Maglor and uncle Maedhros had hardly possessed any of their former wealth.

After all, people stared not only at him but also at Estel. The boy was probably well suited to being accompanied by him, so everyone could see at once that he stood by his foster son and what allies he had. And at least for this moment Elladan and Elrohir could control themselves.

Out of old habit, he immediately took a look at the city's fortifications. He quickly saw that there was still much to be done here, but understandably, when rebuilding the city, the emphasis was initially placed on the city itself rather than on its defense. Who expected still now, after Sauron's fall, a greater threat from orcs?

Maybe they should have. But if neither he nor Galadriel had suspected anything ... And he had not received any news from Círdan either. So how could they have known? He should not blame himself, he scolded himself.

"This will not be an easy task," he heard Rethtulu whispering softly on Quenya behind him.

" _Cenanye_ ," he replied in the same way. "But we'll be able to work it out. We had already fought much more hopeless battles. It won't be that bad."

"If I could share your optimism," Estel interjected softly enough that passersby couldn't hear him. "I was actually told that the construction work was much more advanced than it actually is."

Elrond looked at him questioningly. "Are you saying that you have been lied to?"

"Well..." Estel printed a little bit around. "I don't want to lean too far out of the window and judge too quickly. But it almost looks like it... We will at least perhaps soon find out, there is the mayor in front of us."

Elrond checked once again whether his appearance was right, after all he had learned quite quickly after he had come to Gil-galad that much depended on appearances. Unfortunately, as he found, but it could not be changed.So he tried to look as majestic as possible and sat upright on his horse - while he secretly wondered why not everyone saw how fake it must look.

The mayor was, how clichéd, a small and on top of that fat man in much too exaggerated, overpriced robes, who welcomed the new arrivals on the steps of the town hall. Estel and Elrond rode ahead, while their people lined up in the square in front of the town hall as best they could. At a reasonable distance, they dismounted their horses and went to the mayor. The mayor bowed to them deeply but rubbing his hands while his flanking guard sank to his knees.

"Welcome," said the little man, and Elrond quietly remarked to himself that he could not take him seriously, dressed up as he was. "My name is Valandil, Your Grace has surely heard of me."

"I am pleased to meet you personally, Valandil," Estel exchanged the usual phrases of politeness.

Valandil again bowed extremely low; almost too low for Elrond's taste. Then he pulled himself together. Why was he so prejudiced against this man? It couldn't have been just the appearance!

But it was the behavior, a soft voice whispered in his ear.

And that was true, he realized. Valandil was too submissive. Hadn't Estel also just hinted that not everything looked exactly as he had been told? Perhaps he should do some little research, he thought.

Valandil now turned to him. "You too shall be honored, Master Elrond," he said. "I am most pleased to welcome you to my city. So much is heard of you, I hope I can make your stay pleasant!"

Elrond smiled cool. "I am delighted to enjoy your hospitality. I'm sure it is exquisite."

A broad smile flitted across Valandil's face and he clapped his hands. "Then all shall be made right!"


	28. Meetings

Valandil kept his promise, and soon the high-ranking visitors were adequately accommodated, and lodgings were also arranged for the army. Elrond had nevertheless sent Glorfindel to see to it, even if it did not suit him that he had to play the nanny all the time. At least that is what he said.  
Now, after they had calmed down a bit, Elladan, Elrohir, Estel, and Legolas and Gimli had gathered in the rooms assigned to Elrond. Ceomon and Rethtulu were also not far away and provided wine (which seemed to appeal to Legolas in particular) and some fruit. For the evening, Valandil had invited them all to dinner, so they did not want to eat too much yet.  
"It seems that not everything is really going on here," Estel opened the discussion. "The reports I have received in Minas Tirith speak of much greater construction progress than is actually the case."  
"And now we have the problem that a horde of orcs is trying to overrun these very crumbling walls," commented Elladan. "Aside from the fact that even if these walls weren't so crumbling, they would only be a real obstacle if they were better jointed."  
"I tell you, Aragorn," muttered Gimli. "One hundred dwarves and all that is no longer a problem. The offer stands."  
"That is kind of you, friend Gimli," said Estel. "Unfortunately, however, they will not be able to arrive in time. I'll come back to the offer later though, it can't go on like this."  
"How much have the construction costs been so far?", the dwarf checked again.  
Estel told him the sum.  
Gimli snuffed snidely. "But that's not what it looks like! I bet my beard that this Valandil is pulling you over. For the money, the construction work would not only have to be further along, but of far better quality."  
"I agree with Gimli's suspicions," Elrond now also took the floor. "I don't like the mayor, his whole appearance seems false and contrived. Do not trust him, Estel. Take matters into your own hands, at least for now, and then appoint a more worthy representative than this man."  
A little astonished, Estel looked at him. "You rarely judge so quickly," he said. "But you understand much better than ordinary mortals, even better than some of the Eldar. If you are so sure that you have already made your judgment, then so be it. I will handle it that way. Still, it would be better if we had really solid evidence."  
A mischievous glint entered Elrohir's eyes and Elrond already guessed that this could not mean anything good. "Surely you do not doubt the effect of adaro gaze!" he exclaimed. "With his evil eye, he could have stared down even Sauron."  
Elrond looked at him gloomily, but his son just grinned.  
"There, that's the one I mean!" he said.  
Those present laughed, even if it only made Elrond's gaze darker.   
"That's right, I guess you're right," Estel responded to the joke.  
"That's enough," Elrond grumbled grouchily.   
Estel tried to find his way back to the seriousness of the situation. "The most urgent problem, however, is and remains the enemy army," he said. "We have to find a way to deal with it somehow with the available resources, no matter how. I will address the subject before Valandil later and make it clear to him that he has cut his own flesh with it, no matter what he wanted to achieve".  
"If I may, I may be able to fix some things," Gimli offered. "In Helm's Deep, it did bring a little something, the little I could do there."  
Estlel smiled crookedly. "Valandil won't like that at all," he said with an ironic undertone. "We'll come and mix it all up."  
"But it's his fault," Elladan threw in dryly. "Then Master Gimli inspects the fortifications while we should take a closer look at the soldiers in the city."  
"Archers in particular will soon be needed, I can take them on if it is desired," Legolas now also interfered and added with a smile: "Then I too can contribute something and not just stand uselessly by and watch!"  
"Then it's decided," Estel said at the end. "Valandil will certainly not be pleased, but he will have to live with that.  
"And in the meantime, I will do some research," Elrond concluded the round. " It cannot be right here if this man is really deceiving you, Estel. "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little side note: I'm translating this with Deepl. In German we have the word Esel (donkey). As you can see it looks ands sounds really simillar to Estel. Deepl thinks all the time, that I mean Esel and not Aragorn's child name and always translates it to Donkey and I JUST CAN'T! I have to laugh so hard all the time!


	29. Questlog: From enemy to friend

As Gimli had promised, he had (at least after Valandil had been officially warned and every protest had been nipped in the bud) taken a close look at the fortifications. Legolas had accompanied him and at the same time kept an eye on the guards on the tops of the walls. Aragorn had not been too enthusiastic about what they reported, but lived like them in the hope that they could somehow fix the predicament in time. According to what their scouts reported, they only had a few days left until the enemy was at the city gates.

Now, one day later, the two friends strolled across the market and looked at the display, mostly dried fruit or household goods such as raffia baskets or clay pots. It was not too crowded, because the weather was getting more unpleasant and colder every day. At least it didn't rain, which was probably a significant improvement compared to the weather of the last weeks. Occasionally even the sun came through the clouds.

"A lot of work ahead of us," Gimli remarked.

"Yes, I guess we have," Legolas said laconically. The elf probably didn't like it so much that it was more work than he thought. Gimli considered buying his friend a whip so that he could better push the shooters, so that he could get it over with faster.

But at that moment he noticed something else. "Look there, Earenis," he said and pointed to the elf. She was at the stand of a blacksmith and looked at the display. Mostly they were simple kitchen utensils or tools for field work, but there were also some knives underneath that had attracted Earenis' attention.

"Oh, great..." Grumbling Legolas wanted to turn off, but this time Gimli was faster. He held his friend by his sleeve.

"Stay right here," he said. "We'll both go to her now and have a reasonable conversation like among civilized people. We do not attack each other and we do not want to smash each other's heads in. Will we?"

Legolas narrowed his eyes. "Have you made up your mind that we are to be friends, Earenis and I?"

Gimli put on an innocent face. "More or less," he confessed, "You don't have to become best friends, but I'm sure you'll realize that she's certainly easy to talk to. You know how it is with the stubbornness of the dwarves..."

Legolas sighed resignedly. "Yes, I know that. Unfortunately."

"So..." Gimli stomped towards Earenis, taking care that Legolas really followed him and didn't flee secretly. "Hello!" he greeted the elf enthusiastically. He was sure that his plan would work out.

Earenis turned to the newcomers. At first she noticed Gimli and a smile flitted across her otherwise dark face, but when she noticed Legolas' face, she immediately fell back into familiar facial expressions.

"Hello," she grumbled back.

Legolas stayed discreetly in the background and tried to look like air if possible.

"We saw you standing here all alone and thought you might enjoy a little company," Gimli tried to start a conversation.

"Hmmhmm. Nice."

She didn't really seem to be that enthusiastic.

"What are you looking at?" he tried again.

"Knife."

She really had everything pulled out of her nose! But that would surely turn up. "Good quality, isn't it?" Gimli judged after a quick glance at the display. The blacksmith's work did indeed make a good impression.

"The price-performance ratio isn't really right," remarked Earenis, "Good knives, yes. But nevertheless overpriced."

Gradually, Legolas' interest seemed to have been aroused. Gimli tapped himself on the shoulders in his thoughts as the elf stepped beside him and took a closer look at one of the long knives. He balanced it on his finger.

"A butcher's knife," he noted derogatorily. "Good for chopping but not suitable for a fight, for which this was probably intended."

"I never said that all knives are good," grumbled Earenis, obviously a bit more out of tune again.

"That's probably true." Legolas' gaze fell on the sword hanging from Earenis' hip. It was new, the one Aragorn had promised her. "May I?" he asked, and that he asked in a reasonable tone of voice made Gimli look at it as an even greater success of the day.

Earenis, in any case, did not seem to trust peace completely. Nevertheless she loosened the sword in its sheath, drew it and handed it to him with the hilt. Legolas stepped back a little to have more room, then he swung it experimentally and checked the blades.

" _That's_ good work," he said appreciatively.

"The king gave it to me," she said softly. "He is just and wise, it would certainly never have been his intention to mock me by giving me a bad sword."

"It is an appropriate weapon, I think," Gimli threw in. "You have earned it."

"Mistaroa," corrected Earenis. "He has alerted me to the danger."

The dog had been dozing in a corner of the market until now, and every now and then he nibbled languidly on a bone between his huge paws. When he now heard his name, he immediately jumped up and trotted to his mistress. Arrived at her, he sat down in front of her, looked at her from big dog eyes and probably expected to be stroked once again. She did not pay any further attention to him.

Legolas handed back the sword. "Maybe... maybe I should apologize to you." Embarrassed like a schoolboy who had done mischief, he stared at the tips of his boots. "My suspicions that night were not entirely justified."

 _That_ was an interesting development of things! Gimli nodded approvingly, and Earenis also seemed perplexed. She had probably expected the least of all.

"It's all right," she just said. Apparently she was uncomfortable with this topic, because she changed it quickly. "I hear you're planning to rebuild the defenses of this city."

"By force, yes," Gimli confirmed. "A dump is a good name for it, I think. But somehow, it will work out." As he noticed Earenis worried about the mine, he added: "You're not worried about anything concerning the few orcs that will soon be at the gates, are you?

"Well..." She printed a little bit around. "I have never taken part in a siege. Hired from various mercenary troops and maybe one or the other band of bandits, but that... is a bit bigger than occasionally chasing a troll or something like that."

"Don't worry about that, girl," Gimli tried to comfort her. "Aragorn will do all right, he always has, you'll see."

Earenis smiled gratefully.

Legolas laid a thoughtful mine. "A thought just occurred to me... Did you perhaps kill the trolls in the Troll Shaws?" he asked. "When we went north to the cave where we found you, we found two dead trolls on the way. One of them looked as if a big wolf or dog had torn him apart; what it was exactly, you could not tell anymore."

"Yes, it was Mistaroa and me," she confirmed. "Some villagers had hired me to take care of the problem." She shrugged her shoulders. "So I did it."

Legolas seemed to wrestle with himself, but then he nodded approvingly. "Not everyone can handle two trolls at once."

She just hummed to confirm. Apparently, she didn't seem to trust peace anymore. But at least Gimli was satisfied with the result, Legolas had jumped over his shadow. He knew he could make the boy do it! Even though it might have been enough for now.

"We have a few more courses to go," he said. "It was a nice chat and I'm sure we'll see you again soon."

They said goodbye and parted ways again.

As he left, Gimli said softly to his friend, "See, that did it."

"Oh, shut up!" Legolas hated it when the dwarf was right.

Gimli grinned into his beard. The day was a complete success!


	30. Confusion of thoughts

Earenis could not deny that she was happy when Legolas and Gimli had left. The conversation had confused her and she just couldn't figure it out. With Gimli she was quite sure that he meant it honestly when he was nice to her (even if that irritated her too), but Legolas... Had he played it to get some peace from his friend? After all, she had noticed on the trip here that Gimli seemed to really mind that his friend hated her so much.

And there was also this sudden apology. Earenis had never expected that the elf would change his mind so quickly. She distrusted him, something was going on that she didn't want to please her.

On top of all the chaos came the realization that this city was in no way prepared for a siege by a larger force. She so much hoped that King Elessar could do something, anything. For even though she would never admit it, she was afraid. She had never taken part in a full-scale battle, always only small skirmishes. She couldn't even fight very well. Yes, she was agile and fast, but when it came to wielding the sword in battle, she would usually just hack away wildly without paying attention to how she wielded her weapon. So far she had gotten through life quite well with that, but this would be her biggest fight yet.

Soon after Legolas and Gimli had left, she too had retreated to her small chamber in one of the barracks of the city, which she had been given. Apparently, the local military had tacitly assumed that she belonged to Lord Elrond's people, and Glorfindel had also said nothing when he had made his rounds the previous evening. So she now lived here temporarily, had a halfway decent bed, regular meals, and did not have to pay anything.

Now, in the evening after the unpleasant encounter with Legolas and Gimli, she sat on her bed and was still brooding about it. To her own dismay, she realized that she was apparently quite fond of Gimli. Was it because he was so kind to her? No one else had ever been really friendly to her. He was pretty much the first person who could see beyond her background and who seemed to be really trying to be friendly and courteous to her.

But why? Was it pity? Then he was just like everyone else. Compassion didn't help her in any way - apart from the fact that she didn't even need help, she managed quite well on her own in her life, she always did. Or was it something other than pity? Was it perhaps really just out of pure kindness? It was hard for her to imagine.

So many questions and no answers! Ignorance gnawed at her, because she hated ignorance. And these were just her personal problems, there was still this inkling that something was going on in the North of Middle-earth at the moment that could not be good - and that must have something to do with her. But what? Something told her that she would still have a part to play in it. However, the question remained as to what this would be and whether she could and would fulfill her role.

The hours passed and more and more questions arose. Meanwhile it had been dark for quite some time and peace returned to the barracks and the whole city. Because of all the open questions, Earenis noticed an inner restlessness in herself, which she did not like. She decided to change her mind with some stretching exercises.

For today she should leave it at that. It would be better to just let the coming events come to her.


	31. The siege of Fornost

Only a few days later, the news spread like wildfire throughout the city that the enemy would soon be at the gates. Earenis noticed how she panicked briefly at this news, until it became too much for Mistaroa, who yelped loudly at her and brought her back to the here and now. She was glad, however, that she was more or less integrated into Elrond's people and that she had someone to give clear instructions to follow. Even if that someone was Elrond.

Still, she appreciated a leader who gave strict and precise orders, much more than a haphazard attack.

The plan was that first the archers under Legolas' command would meet the attacks on the walls. In addition, in the last few days, Gimli had the walls repaired as best he could and had traps set to prevent the walls from being climbed as much as possible. If, contrary to expectations, orcs were able to overcome the walls or gates, the rest of the city guards as well as King Elessar's and Lord Elrond's men would be waiting for them.

For Earenis this meant that she waited in the streets among the other Noldor and could only watch and listen to what was going on on the walls. As she had been told, several hundreds of orcs awaited her. Possible, but not an easy task considering the condition of the fortifications. The expected losses would probably be much higher.

Earenis noticed that fear rose in her, not an unknown feeling for her. Maybe it was also good that she was afraid, she thought. So she concentrated fully on the fight and did not allow anything else.

At some point a horn signal sounded, the sign that the enemy was now there. Earenis couldn't see him, of course, but she heard him scream and scoff. It had been a long time since any citizen could be seen on the streets; they had all barricaded themselves in their houses and provided buckets of water in case the enemy attacked with fire.

Somewhere in front of her, King Elessar gave a short speech, which was received with an equally short but all the more powerful jubilation. Then he signaled to Legolas and Gimli behind him on the ramparts of the city wall, whereupon the elf gave the order to attack and his little friend rushed off, probably to set in motion some mechanics that had been erected in no time.

What happened after that was only a blurred, dreamlike memory for Earenis. Arrows flew back and forth, not a few found their target far beyond the wall. She spent most of this attack phase under the Noldor's shield wall. On the walls, soldiers cried out again and again, in pain or in triumph. She herself had the drumming of arrows on the shields in her ears, but down here hardly anyone cried out in a hit; the shield wall kept tight.

For quite a while, nothing changed in this situation, only the soundscape fluctuated again and again, so that she could only guess what was going on. Apparently the archers on the walls could not stop the enemy completely, because occasionally she could hear swords clashing and finally also the dull thumping against the main gate of the city.

Soon the orcs would break through, Earenis heard the cracking and crashing of the wood of the gate. Then there would be knife work. At least it would be better than the eternal waiting and trembling under the shield. She only hoped that there would not be too many orcs.

Lord Elrond gave his orders as did King Elessar and movement came to their army. Earenis blended in with the great masses and tried to submit, even though she could not really keep up with the pronounced discipline of the elves around her.

They lined up to form a defensive formation to counter the attack that was about to begin. Earenis saw to it that she stayed somewhere in the middle of the elvish army. Here she hoped for the safest position, because after all she didn't have any of the other soldiers' large shields to protect her from the orcs' onslaught.

Only moments later, the wings of the gate flew open with a splintering noise. As soon as the orcs had dropped their battering ram and started to attack, Lord Elrond called for further orders. A wall of shields and spears awaited the orcs, where many of them ran aground and met their end.

"Hold your ground," she heard people shouting over and over again. "Do not let them through! Stop them!"

"Khazad! Khazâd!," cried Gimli from the wall. "Barûk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-menû!"

A fierce but short battle broke out. Screams echoed through the city, arrows flew wildly through the area. Eventually, the orcs managed to overcome most of the defense and most of the structured lines disintegrated. There were hard individual battles in which everyone stood alone. In this, Earenis was strong, after all, she was a true lone fighter. Until now, she had told Mistaroa to stay in the background, because he would have been in the way of a closed group of soldiers, but now she called him to her side. Joyfully, her faithful dog jumped up and went for every orc who made the mistake of getting too close.

The fight was brutal, but quickly decided. The defenders were too determined for the orcs to completely overcome their lines without being completely worn down themselves. They seemed to realize this at some point, because suddenly Earenis noticed that more and more orcs were fleeing and less and less enemies were in her way.

Finally, someone shouted the decisive word: "Victory!"


	32. A new enemie

The losses were lamentable, but they were bearable and not too high. Their defense had saved many lives in the end. Everywhere there were cheers for the king and his allies. King Elessar was cheered by his subjects, even though Earenis could observe that Lord Elrond did not seem to care too much for such coquetry, for his two shadows had already brought him his medicine bag, and he and his sons were nursing the first wounded on the battlefield. Strange people, she found, and with this thought she set out to find a healer herself. Of course, she too had not come out of the battle unscathed and had suffered many a wound. Mistaroa also seemed to limp slightly on one paw. Nevertheless he had stayed with her, she was proud of him. Lightly smiling, she patted his head.

A healer was quickly found, and since she had not let that stop her from getting celebrated, she did not have to wait too long for her turn. Quickly the man had inspected her wounds. He shook his head.  
"You were already wearing armor, and yet you still got quite a bit of damage," he said in an unpleasantly high voice.

Earenis drew a face and just shrugged her shoulders wordlessly. "Do your work, I paid you for it," she said dryly.

"Yes, yes," nagged the healer.

The wounds were quickly washed out with alcohol, even though it burned like hell. There were worse pains, she found and gritted her teeth. Some of the wounds were not too deep, but some had to be stitched up again after they had been washed out in this way. This took some time before Earenis could walk. The healer had offered her to check on Mistaroa as well, but she preferred to do that herself. She knew how quickly Mistaroa would bite others, especially when they were supposedly causing him pain with evil intent.

She went back to her small chamber in the barracks with her dog. "Let's go for once," she said more to herself than to Mistaroa. She told him to lie down and show her the paw that was causing him problems. The leg was quickly palpated and to her relief she could not find any fractures. She only made a deep cut on the ball of the foot, where Mistaroa might have cut himself on a dropped weapon or piece of armor. She washed the wound out and bandaged it. That should have done it.

At that moment there was a knock at her door.

"Come in," she called, and one of the two Noldor in Elrond's shadow entered. It was Ceomon, if she remembered correctly. She frowned. What did he want from her here?

"The Lord sends me," he began immediately. "We have a problem, and it seems to concern you too."

Immediately she became stiff as a board. It wasn't because of the stolen ring, was it? "What... is it?" she asked carefully.

"We have taken a prisoner", Ceomon explained, "and now we want to make him talk about who sent us the orcs. However, he asks for you or would rather die before he says a word." Noticing Earenis' confused face, he added: "We don't understand it either, but... At least it's worth a try."

Earenis said it took a load off her mind. If it was nothing else! She ordered Mistaroa to stay in the chamber so he could rest his wounded paw, even if he didn't like it. Then she followed Ceomon.

The Noldo led her to the townhouse, but to the part where the prisons were located. There he opened a door for her and let her in. Besides the mayor Valandil, she met here also Lord Elrond and his sons, King Elessar, Legolas and Gimli. They had gathered around an orc tied to the ground, who stared at them all poisonously and occasionally half-heartedly tried to escape his fetters. When he saw Earenis, however, a mischievous smile was stolen onto his features.

"Are you going to talk, you monster?" hissed one of the twins as he pointed his sword at the throat of the prisoner. "There she is, for whatever reason you wish to see her."

"The rumors are true," growled the Orc when he saw her. "You are like HIM."

Earenis did not understand what was going on. "Like... who?" she asked hesitantly.

"Like Ghâshburz, like my lord," was the gloating answer. "He wants you and he will have you."

At that moment, her features must have slipped away. The others present were no less surprised.

"Is he the one who sent you?" asked the king, who first returned to his voice.

"Yes."

"What does he want?"

"Your heads."

"Which he will not get. A few hundred would never have been enough," King Elessar made clear.

"No. They were just a warning, and to test you."

"Then he has more armies? Bigger?", now also Lord Elrond interfered.

"Yes."

"How great?"

But the Orc no longer answered. Elrond's second son approached him and hit him hard in the face with the armored glove, but even to this the orc did not give the desired answer.

"And he has many allies," he said instead. "Many spies, some willingly, and some don't even know they work for him." At the same time, he took a look around the room that absolutely did not want to please.

Earenis noticed the worried looks that Lord Elrond and King Elessar exchanged with each other. Apparently, she was not the only one who found the situation so threatening.

"And what is even more beautiful," and here the orc turned to Legolas, "is that my master will not be content with Eriador alone."

The _laegel_ looked up in alarm. "What does that mean? Speak!"

"That King Thranduil will receive visitors as soon as this city does."

"So he plans to make greater conquests?

"More than that."

"More what?"

But again the orc was silent and all the beatings did not help to make him talk again. It soon became clear that he would not talk either.

Elrond turned to his son, who still threatened the orc with his sword. "Elladan, we have heard enough."

Elladan nodded and sank the blade into the orc's throat. With a grunt, the creature went to the ground. Elrond turned away.

"I'm retiring, I must think," he said. "Ceomon, Rethtulu, come with me." With that, he left.

"I suppose we all must," King Elessar murmured and followed him. As the only one of those present, Gimli stopped at Earenis for a moment. "Everything all right?", he asked, for he had probably seen that she had turned pale.

"It's all right," she said dismissively. That had been too much for her, too. Had the Orc really implied that there was another half-breed like her? That her unknown enemy was one? That could not be!

The dwarf patted her on the arm. "Perhaps you should come to rest a little after this turbulent day," he said. "Tomorrow the world will look very different again."

"Perhaps..." She wasn't too sure, though.


	33. Only ever new questions

Legolas was on his way to his rooms, which he had been given for the duration of their stay in the city, when he noticed that Gimli was following him. He paused and turned to his friend, "What is it?" he inquired.

"Well, I thought we could talk a little," said Gimli. "After all, a lot has just happened."

Since nothing contradicted this, they sat down on a bench that stood in a nearby window niche.

"I am very torn at this moment," Legolas began to get his worries off his chest. "On the one hand, father must be warned of the impending danger and I would prefer to be the one to ride to him. But on the other hand I would like to stay here with Aragorn and help him".

"I understand that," said Gimli. "But you would help him too if you warned your father. If what the orc told us is true, then Ghâshburz will wage war on two fronts. If your father is warned, he will surely not make things easy for our enemy and draw some of his attention away from Aragorn."

"War..." Legolas took a deep breath. This word lay heavy in his stomach. "I had hoped that after Sauron's fall we would never have to experience this again. Too long had this fight been granted."

"So had I." Gimli sighed. "I knew we would have problems with orcs in years to come, but that they would grow so big..."

"I am amazed at the speed with which it was done", remarked the laegel. "Less than two years ago we won, and now this!"

For a while they remained thoughtfully silent.

"If I let myself think about it like that ...", Gimli began slowly. "Such a people as the orcs would have been so quick to stand united behind a new leader if they had known him long before."

Legolas didn't like this idea at all, which was opened up by Gimli's thought. "So either he had planned his ascent well in advance and made arrangements, or he was a servant of Sauron who had escaped."

"Or both."

"And none more beautiful than the other." He pulled a face. "I really should go. I'm sure Aragorn will not object."

"I'll come with you if you like," Gimli offered.

"And I... If I may", they heard the unexpected voice of Earenis. Shocked, Legolas turned to her.

"Did you overhear us?", he wanted to know and immediately the well-known distrust came up in him. But he pulled himself together. He wanted to give her at least a chance to prove herself, Gimli had convinced him of that.

"Admittedly, yes," she replied coolly. "But you heard what the Orc said: Somehow I am involved in this whole thing. Besides, I have the feeling that I'm just going to sit here idly for a while and I don't like that".

Legolas hesitated and struggled with it.

"There's nothing really wrong with that, is there?" Gimli cheerfully took the decision from him.

A grateful smile fell on Earenis' otherwise grim, scarred face. "Then I thank you," she said with a slight bow, and that was it. Informing Aragorn was just a formality.


	34. First exploratory walks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahahaha! Shit. I just noticed that I forget a chapter. So you'll get two new chapters, thet second one will be the new chapter 7.

However, Elrond had come to similar conclusions as Legolas and Gimli, and he too was no less concerned. In addition to this, however, there were several other thoughts that he intended to share with his sons. He had some plans for the near future, and for that he would need their help.

"What do you think of Valandil?" he opened the conversation as soon as Elladan and Elrohir had arrived.

"He is hiding something," Elladan began.

"Just what?" added his brother.

"Yes, what... That's what we have to find out," said Elrond. "Estel has him under scrutiny too, after all, it concerns him. But since he has other things on his mind right now, we'll take it from there."

"And who could possibly hide anything from you if you just drill long enough?" said Elrohir.

Yes, who would be able to do that? After all, he was a mighty lord of the Eldar, and he was also the one who had commanded over the power of Vilya, the mightiest of the rings of power, until the destruction of the One. If Valandil hid something from him, which he did, he was already sure of, he would not be able to do so for long.

"So where shall we start?" Elladan asked.

"In the archives," Elrond explained. "If the accounts department is not also involved in this fraud, that's where we'll find the quickest way."

" This would be obvious," Elladan said, thinking. "Valandil already dislikes what we've done to him, and Estel has taken over the city."

"Well, we'll just create a little diversion," was Elrond's simple answer. He didn't really have a plan yet, but making spontaneous decisions from time to time wasn't the biggest problem.

So it was decided and they began their work. The town library was also located in the town house, and since it was known that Elrond was well-read anyway, it would probably not be noticed if he wanted to visit the library with his sons.

As was usual in a good library, a librarian sat right at the entrance. Elrond could spot him through the open door from a distance and told his sons to stop.

"I will tell him that we want to look around a bit," he said quietly. "After that, involve him in a conversation for as long as possible, you're so good at that. In the meantime, I'm going to look around."

Elladan and Elrohir nodded as a sign that they had understood. Then they set to work. In their element, the twins immediately pounced on the poor librarian and laid siege to him. Once Elrond was sure that the man was sufficiently distracted, he left discreetly and searched the rows of shelves for some very specific books.

As he had suspected, he found them in a separate section, which, although listed as forbidden to normal visitors, was otherwise not particularly secure. Elrond, of course, was not deterred.

Since he, to his chagrin, had some experience with accounting and this library was also well sorted, he had quickly found what he was looking for. He took a quick, probing look at his sons, who still had the librarian in charge. Good.

Quickly he had pulled some of the files from the shelf and withdrew with them to a sheltered corner where he could not be seen so quickly. Then he hurriedly skimmed through them. He knew it was no good rushing through all those columns of figures in a hurry, as he might have missed something, but there was probably no other way.

Quickly, however, he was faced with another problem: The data was encrypted. He cursed silently. It would take too long to decode the data, and he didn't have that much time. His sons could not talk to the librarian for that long without him becoming suspicious. So Elrond decided to take some parchment and ink (which had been provided on the table where he had sat down) and hurriedly copied one of the pages.

Just as he was coming to the last characters, he heard step. Hastily he folded the parchment and put it in a crease in his robe. Then he hastily cleared up and put the folios back in their places. He had managed to look as innocent as possible just in time when another member of the library staff came to him.

" Lord Elrond," he greeted him with a bow. "I am delighted that you are interested in our collection. I regret to inform you that this part is not accessible to visitors."

"Oh, I did not know that," he said with an innocent expression. "But surely you will be able to make an exception for me, won't you?"

"Unfortunately not, no." Regretfully, the man shook his head.

Ah, too bad. It could have worked. "I guess there's nothing we can do about it," he said and left properly.

So now it was probably time to abandon this first attempt. He held out for his sons. "Elladan, Elrohir, it's time to go," he said to them.

" _Adar_!" they complained in unison. "We had such a stimulating conversation. And we wanted to see the library too."

They played their part really well. "You had your time", he gave the unyielding father and moved on unimpressed. Silently moaning, his sons followed.

When they were out of earshot, Elrohir immediately asked quietly, "So?

"Encoded," he replied just as softly. "But I was able to copy an extract until I was interrupted. At least that's a start."

Hopefully it should be enough for him to work with. Even if it could take a while. He hoped they had that time.


	35. Talks along the way

Of course Aragorn had agreed that it would be Legolas who would travel to his father to warn him. Aragorn even seemed to have been quite happy that Legolas had come to him that very day on his own, as he himself had already considered sending his friend, but had also guessed that he might prefer to stay with him, but otherwise might not have been able to find anyone quickly. He found it as astonishing as Legolas and Gimli that Earenis wanted to come with them, but like them, he found no reason to object.

So Earenis had got a horse and set off the next morning with the two friends. Legolas, after he had helped Gimli onto his horse behind him, drove his animal, but took a discriminating look at the Half-elf. Since the events at the inn, he just couldn't figure her out. The moment he caught her with a weapon in her hand, the world had been so simple for him. Her father was an orc, so she too possessed bad blood, which led her to evil deeds. After all, she demanded money to help other people!

But then... Instead of defecting to the attacking orcs, she had fought for Aragorn's rescue (and Legolas had to acknowledge that she had been the only one who had been able to make a difference at that moment). This had turned his entire image of her upside down. She was still rough around the edges and wrapped herself in a hard shell. But he had the dull feeling that beneath it was a soft, vulnerable core that wanted to be protected.

And that confused him more than anything else: that ever since he thought about her so much, he felt more and more the need to protect her. She must have experienced much injustice in her life. That had certainly made her what she was. Gradually he began to believe he understood her.

Following this thought, he rode east. Earenis kept a little behind him, so that he could not watch her unless he turned around conspicuously.

What was going on in her head? What moved her to do what she did? Was it a need for justice? Or was it just a fulfillment of lower urges?

Occasionally, Mistaroa jumped away yapping and frightened the horses. Sometimes he just chased air, sometimes he had actually spotted prey. Otherwise nothing exciting happened. Nature was peaceful, winter grey but uneventful. Silence had settled over the land, winter was near. Soon the first snow would surely fall.

"Tell us a little about yourself," Gimli asked in the middle of the silence.

"I am a mercenary, what's there to tell?" was the short answer.

"Well, it is very unusual for a woman to wield a sword," Gimli tried again.

"Do I look ordinary?" Earenis replied impudently. Shortly afterwards, she continued nevertheless: "The world is dangerous and I stand for myself alone; I have no one else to protect me. So I do it myself."

"And who taught you how to fight?" Legolas asked now, but received only a snort in reply. Displeasure came up in him. Gimli made her talk and with him she became angry immediately? He had apologised, that should be enough!

"You certainly have a... unconventional style," Gimli continued.

"I more or less taught myself," she said softly. "Sometimes there was someone in the one or other mercenary group who showed me a little something, but I learned most of it. It's not perfect, I know, but it makes Orcs a head shorter."

Gimli laughed deeply. "Which is the main thing, I will say! And, of course, that you get out of it yourself!"

Earenis giggled. "I guess that's true. And it works, as you can see!"

Legolas noticed how the displeasure grew. Or was it something else after all? Why did he dislike the fact that his friend could talk so well with Earenis and he couldn't? The very fact that he actually asked himself this question only increased his displeasure. In any case, Gimli and Earenis got into a lively conversation about the strangest events during various fights that had happened to them. Legolas held back in a distinguished manner and turned his gaze stubbornly straight ahead. When the two got along so well, he didn't want to disturb them anymore...


	36. Point of view

The three travellers made good progress, partly because Legolas constantly urged them to hurry. He feared that Ghâshburz might have already continued his work and they were too late to warn his father. During these days, Earenis noted that she was looking forward to the end of the journey with mixed feelings. After all, if you travelled around the world a lot, you heard many things about the King of the Woodland Realm, even if you had never been there yourself. And what she had heard, she did not really want to like. Thranduil was rather irascible and quickly prejudiced, they said. Not least what she sometimes thought she heard from Gimli's words, as soon as the talk came to Legolas' father, confirmed this to her.

If Thranduil recognised what she was... Uncomfortable would certainly not be an expression. But she dared to, not least because something drove her to that path, whatever it was.

Moreover, a soft voice inside her, which she persistently tried to ignore, said that she enjoyed Gimli's company. If one ignored Legolas, the dwarf was an extremely exhilarating conversationalist and easy to talk to. In the evenings around the campfire, she enjoyed talking to him and laughing with him in a way she hadn't in so many years. It was good to be able to laugh again, she hadn't had a reason to do so for too long.

Mistaroa, of course, noticed her unusually cheerful mood and seemed to be somewhat irritated by it; he didn't recognise her anymore.

What Earenis, on the other hand, noticed was that Legolas became surprisingly quiet during this time. The better she got along with Gimli, the more his Elvish friend withdrew. She just could not figure him out! First he hated her and now... Yes, what now? What was going on in his head? She almost preferred him to be openly hostile to her, at least she would know where she stood. But this silence was scary for her…

Mulling over brooding and she didn't get anywhere! And with these musings came the miles in the country.

Not long after they had left Fornost, the temperatures sank noticeably within a few days and the first snowflakes of the new winter fell. From then on it became colder and colder, the snow fell more frequently and more densely, until a few days later there was a thick white blanket over the land, in which the horses left deep hoofmarks.

They rode almost straight east with only a slight southern direction, as their destination was the High Pass north of Rivendell. Occasionally, Gimli would chatter from time to time about what his father had experienced while crossing that pass, back in the year when the Ring was found and the dragon defeated. Earenis, however, was not particularly keen on reliving these adventures, especially at this time of year, when crossing the mountains would not be pleasant as it was.

In all that time, the question of uncertainty hovered over them. The country still seemed peaceful. Legolas said that even the animals were unaware of an emerging danger. So they had no way of knowing what was going on. What were the plans of their still faceless enemy Ghâshburz? What was his next step?

And was he really half Elf half Orc, as the captured Orc had claimed after the battle? This question probably caused Earenis the most trouble, even though she did not even hint at it to Gimli, whom she had come to trust. Were there others like her? Had they suffered as she did? Or had they been able to find another way than she had? One that had been associated with less suffering?

Who was Ghâshburz? That was still the crucial question.


	37. Mayor Valandil

With a shake of his head but still smiling, Estel looked at the sheet of paper that lay on the table in front of him. Elrond had gone to his foster son shortly after leaving the library to present him with the results of his initial research. Elladan and Elrohir were with him, whispering to each other. Elrond preferred not to know what they were up to. They simply could not grow up.

" _Adar_ , I never thought that _you_ , of all people, would do such things." Estel couldn't help but grin.

Elrond just shrugged his shoulders. "Certain names can be advantageous too," he said. "I don't think Valandil would be so quick to suspect me of all people snooping around in his files."

"That's probably true," confirmed Estel. "However, he won't be too pleased, should he find out."

"You are the king and he seems to be betraying you," Elrond clarified. "So, he should not be surprised if I can't help but get my hands on him, too."

"We all know that," Elrohir now interfered. "Father, who constantly mothered us all. Valandil has chosen the wrong opponent!"

It merely earned him a warning look from his father, which was skilfully ignored. Elrond was beginning to fear that his sons had seen that look too often for them to take it seriously. He should come up with something new.

"Deciphering this," Estel found his way back to the real issue and waved the parchment page, "may take a while, though. That's how long we have to keep Valandil happy so that he doesn't suspect anything. At least no more than he already does."

"Tonight, there is to be a celebration of our victory anyway, isn't there?" said Elladan.

"Quite right, _our_ victory," exclaimed his brother. "What Valandil's men have done…"

"Elrohir, enough," Elrond drove over his mouth. "You do them wrong. They cannot help the incompetence of their master. Estel has to go to this party tonight anyway, so we too can put on a brave face and go there too."

"But please take Ceomon and Rethtulu with you," Elrohir asked. "They are better at pouring wine than these bunglers here."

"Yes, I noticed that you don't like it here," Elrond moaned annoyingly. Sometimes his sons were really too much trouble!

A few hours later they were at the party as planned. Valandil was pleased that his elven guests had also accepted his invitation. Estel was the guest of honour anyway. To adorn oneself with elves and then also with such famous ones was a good thing for the mayor.

The large festival hall on the town hall square had been specially prepared for the occasion and on the square itself, too, space had been created for the common people to celebrate, and even though the weather was not exactly inviting, many had come. Maybe just to see the elves. Elrond had to admit to himself that he always found it extremely amusing how people saw elves as a real attraction.  
At the beginning Valandil had given a fiery speech about victory and then, as a sign of the alliance and mutual friendship, he had initiated a meeting with Estel and Elrond. Although Elrond told himself in secret that this was little more than a skirmish than a real, full-fledged battle. At least it gave people something to talk about for the next few years.

Now the talks had been going on for some time and Estel seemed to have decided that it was time to talk to Valandil about more serious issues.

"I must say I am amazed, Mayor Valandil," he began, "The reports I have received in Minas Tirith on the state of reconstruction of the city have given me a picture of a city that is in a far more advanced state than it actually is."

Valandil's amazement seemed deceptively real. "Then you must be mistaken, my king," he said. "Or my scribes could not express themselves reasonably, which I am of course extremely sorry for, should this be the case. I can assure you, however, that we have used the money you have given us to the best of our ability. You can only imagine that after a city has been in ruins for so long, reconstruction can be quite complicated."

"The residential buildings are indeed in quite good condition, although there is still room for improvement," Estel agreed. "Nevertheless, I was perplexed by the condition of the fortifications from the moment I arrived. Although with the help of the dwarf Gimli, we were able to make some makeshift improvements in a hurry, which, as you saw for yourselves, could make a difference, this cannot be a permanent solution. You should have known that a much higher priority should have been given to the fortifications."

Valandil rubbed his hands and retracted his head because of the rebuke. "Of course, of course", he said sheepishly. "That was probably my fault. But who would have expected such a hostile threat again after Sauron's fall?"

"You should have," Estel continued his reprimand. "The Northern Empire has not been as secure as it once was for many years. Such conditions do not change from one year to the next."

"Of course, my king..." Valandil put on an unfortunate face.

"This time, once again, all went well. But the next time may be completely different. For the duration of my stay, however long that may be, I will take over the affairs of this city," Estel said officially, as he had been doing all along anyway. "After that, we'll see."

Elrond did notice Valandil's hurried and slightly panicky gaze, though he tried to cover it up with a quick, approving bow of his head.

"Of course, my king," said the man. "As you command."

He was hiding something, anything, and he did not want it to come to light. Elrond suspected that this was not only about money laundering, that Valandil had not simply put Estel's money partly in his own pockets. But what was it then? He hoped that decrypting the copy was the key to solving this problem.

And then there was the sudden appearance of a new enemy. And all at the same time. Was there any connection at all? He did not hope so. Because if there was, it would be a bad omen.


	38. The crossing of the Misty Mountains

The three travellers were preparing for some uncomfortable days in the high mountains. It had not taken long for winter to establish itself here in the north and it had now become clear that they could not expect temperatures above freezing any time soon. This also meant that the higher they climbed into the mountains, the colder it would get. They had long since put on their winter clothes, which were now really necessary, and had now also begun to collect firewood on their way, each as much as they could carry, and Mistaroa and the two horses also had to carry bundles of wood. At first Mistaroa had snatched at Gimli's hands when he had tried to put the makeshift harness on him with which the dog could carry the wood, but then Earenis had relieved him of the work. Still, Mistaroa did not look happy.

The land had risen noticeably in the meantime and had become much more hilly. The foothills had been reached and were rising rapidly to the high mountain range that stretched for so many miles from north to south through Middle-earth.

"Back when the world was young and the Eldar had also just awakened, the Vala Orome passed with them from Lake Cuiviénen through this land as well," Legolas told them one day. "But some of them, my ancestors, were afraid of these mighty mountains, for they had seen nothing like them before. So, under Lenwe's leadership, they turned away and went south first, and were gone from the tales for many years. Only a long time later did Lenwe's son Denethor lead them to Beleriand, to the realm of King Thingol. These Elves are called Nandor, Wood Elves."

There was a lot more to tell about this, Earenis knew, and Gimli had heard a little too. But Legolas broke off at this point, for he knew that anything more would put the Noldor, and thus Earenis' mother's people, in a bad light.

The Misty Mountains were truly imposing; even if Gimli could not for the life of him imagine how anyone could be afraid of them. But perhaps he was simply prejudiced, precisely because he was a dwarf. In any case, he was happy to have some mountains around him once again, no matter how uncomfortable it might get.

Perhaps a week later, they reached the foot of the mountain pass. Narrow and steep, it wound into the high mountains. Here they had to dismount and continue on foot. They tied the horses together and led them carefully along the path.

They could only go slowly here, always careful not to kick a stone loose. The abyss to their right quickly became deeper and deeper and the path became narrower and wider. Now and then even one of the horses shied. Then Legolas, who was leading the two animals, turned to them and whispered soft words in his own language into their ears. Gimli still marvelled at how Legolas could handle animals and make them do anything he wanted them to do. Well, except for Mistaroa, the dog had snapped at him himself when he had come too close once....

Earenis led the way, poking around in the snow that covered the path with one of the sticks they had collected. In this way she checked that the path was still safe - at least as safe as it could be. Nevertheless, Gimli noticed the ice under the snow. It was just as well that his boots were iron-shod, that way they had more grip. He envied Legolas his ability to walk on the snow just like that. Earenis, at least, could not do this either. Was it because she was only half Elf?

All at once, however, she stumbled, cried out in fright and flailed her arms wildly. The horses snorted in fright. Legolas jumped forward and grabbed her by the arm before she could fall into the abyss. Quickly he pulled her towards him and held her tightly.

Gimli noticed that his heart was also pounding wildly with fright. This could have ended much worse than with a fright! But fortunately it hadn't come to that. And even with a smirk he noticed the worry in Legolas' gaze. He had suspected it! So slowly the elf was beginning to like the girl after all!

"Are you all right?" asked Legolas.

"Yes. Yes, everything is fine." A little embarrassed, she broke away from him and wiped a stray strand of hair from her face. "Must have missed a patch of ice and slipped." With a hesitation, she added meekly, "Thank you..."

Gimli smirked. Aha... "That's all right then," he said. "No harm done and everything still intact. Then we should see to it that we get on and find shelter for the night. It'll be dark soon, this dwarf nose says."

So they held it. Now far more cautious, they continued on their way. A few miles later they actually found a kind of small cave, more like a hollow in the rock face, but at least it was deep enough for them to set up their somewhat cramped camp there and even be reasonably protected from the weather.

Over the next few days, they climbed higher and higher into the mountains, and the weather became increasingly uncomfortable. At some point, even Legolas began to notice that he was uncomfortably cold, not to speak of Earenis or even Gimli. Even Mistaroa tucked his tail and the horses also became more and more stubborn, no matter how much Legolas talked at them.

But everything had an end and at some point the weather improved and the path led more and more towards the valley again. Without any further major incidents they had finally managed to cross the mountains and were now on the eastern side. A wide, wild land stretched out here and on the horizon a green band. The Eryn Lasgalen. Soon they were at their destination.


End file.
